Last Updated: Monday, January 24, 2011 | 6:11 PM AT
CBC News
An Ontario man testified Monday that a Roman Catholic priest invited him to his apartment in 1978, and then improperly touched him.
Charles Picot, who is in his 60s, is charged with indecent assault. He worked as a priest throughout the northern part of the province until the 1990s.
The alleged victim, Derek Lapointe, waived his right to have his name protected by a publication ban at Picot’s trial in Campbellton provincial court.
Lapointe said he was 13 when he first met Picot, who was his Scout leader. He testified that Picot invited him to his apartment to listen to a new album, Saturday Night Fever.
While there, Lapointe said, Picot asked him to sit on his lap and then put his hands in his pants. Lapointe said he objected and left.
Under cross-examination, Lapointe, 46, admitted that drug and alcohol abuse may have affected his memory, and he has trouble remembering details.
Lapointe said he couldn’t remember what Picot’s apartment looked like or how many songs they listened to before Picot allegedly assaulted him.
The trial continues Tuesday.
Last spring, Picot was found not guilty on a charge of indecent assault involving a 13-year-old boy in Dalhousie.
Picot left the diocese of Bathurst in 1993. He is no longer a practising priest.
The verdict of last Spring referenced has been appealed.
I hope the Crown will call an expert witness on memory and the impact of sex abuse by a priest on a young boy. I don’t know John-Derek’s situation but I do know that the large majority of male victims turn to drugs and alcohol – it is almost stereotypical and symptomatic of the abuse.
Study has not proved that the victims became drug addict or turned in to alcoholism, because they were sexually abused as a child. There are several other reasons. There are countless people, young and old , who are drug addicts and becomes alcoholics. That does not mean that they were being abused as a child. It may be one of the reasons.