The Winnipeg Free Press
The Canadian Press – ONLINE EDITION
Posted: 11/21/2011 3:19 PM | Last Modified: 11/21/2011 9:37 PM
By: Chris Purdy, The Canadian Press
Catholic priest Eric Dejaeger leaves an Iqaluit, Nunavut courtroom Jan. 20, 2011 after his first appearance for six child sexual abuse charges in Igloolik dating back to the 1970s. A Catholic priest is facing sex-related charges in Edmonton that go back more than 35 years. Police say Dejaeger is being transferred to the city from the Baffin Correctional Centre in Nunavut. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Windeyer
EDMONTON – A Catholic priest awaiting trial on sex-related offences in the Arctic is being transferred to Edmonton to face more charges.
Edmonton police allege Father Eric Dejaeger, now 64, abused a youth in the city between 1975 and 1978. He is charged with indecent assault and gross indecency.
Police Det. Barb Clover would not give details on the offence, but said Dejaeger was in a position of trust over the young person. The person, now an adult, contacted police in April.
Clover said Dejaeger faces charges in relation to about 30 people in Nunavut, so it’s a possibility there are more complainants in Edmonton.
“We do urge them to come forward if that’s what they’d like to do,” she said.
Dejaeger was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1978 after he finished studying at Edmonton’s Newman Theological College. He then went north.
In 1990, while in the community of Baker Lake, Nunavut, he pleaded guilty to nine sex offences relating to boys and girls aged nine to 18. He served part of a five-year sentence, then went home to Belgium.
Mounties charged him in 1995 him with more sex offences relating to previous time he spent as a priest in Igloolik. But it took years to arrest him.
The RCMP and Interpol issued various warrants, but Dejaeger continued living quietly in an Oblate community in Belgium. Years later, a Belgian newspaper published a story that he was a wanted man. He was expelled from the country on immigration violations and returned to Canada last January.
He has been held at the Baffin Correctional Centre in Nunavut and awaits a preliminary hearing there next February on the dozens of outstanding sex offences that allegedly occurred in Igloolik between 1978 and 1982.
The Catholic church earlier confirmed that it reached out-of-court settlements with at least 30 of the alleged victims in Igloolik. The settlements involve allegations not tested in court.
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Suspect in historic sexual assault case has several previous convictions
Global News
Monday, November 21, 2011 3:35 PM
Karyn Mulcahy
EDMONTON – Charges have been laid against a 64-year old Catholic priest in connection with a sexual assault that took place in 1975.
A judge’s order was issued for a suspect in the case.
Father Erik Jose Dejaeger is being transferred to Edmonton from the Baffin Correctional Centre in Nunavut, where he is currently being held to face the charges.
Police began investigating the alleged assault in April of 2011 when it was reported to them for the first time.
Dejaeger has been charged with indecent assault and gross indecency, CC (1975-1978).
He is scheduled to make a court appearance for the assault on December 2, 2011.
The suspect has a long history of sexual assault charges and convictions.
He served five years in a Manitoba prison for a sexual assault case dating back to 1982, and in 1988, a judge in the NWT found him guilty of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy
Dejaeger is also currently facing outstanding sexual assault charges in Nunavut.
He was transported from his native Belgium in January 2011 to face that charge.
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Former Catholic priest faces sex-related charges in Edmonton
The Edmonton Journal
21 November 2011
Edmonton police have charged Erik Jose Dejaeger with one count each of indecent assault and gross indecency in connection to a series of alleged incidents involving a minor between 1975 and 1978.
Det. Barb Clover released few details about the charges, which stemmed from a complaint made to police in April 2011. She did not say Monday whether the alleged victim was male or female, only that the person was under 18 in the late 1970s. She said Dejaeger would have been in a position of authority, but was not working as a priest in Edmonton during that period.
Dejaeger was sentenced in 1990 to five years in prison for sexually assaulting five females and two males in Baker Lake, Nunavut. In 1995, he went back to Belgium, where he was born. He has Canadian citizenship.
In January 2011, Dejaeger was returned to Canada to face 20 charges in connection to complaints in Nunavut from the late 1970s and early 1980s.
“Right now we just have one victim (in Edmonton), whereas up in Baffin Island they have over 30,” Clover said. “So we’re thinking that if we put this out, there potentially could be more people out there that have been affected by this fellow, and we do urge them to come forward if that’s what they’d like to do.”
Dejaeger is expected to appear in an Edmonton courtroom Dec. 2 after being transferred from the Baffin Correctional Centre in Nunavut. A preliminary hearing on the Nunavut charges is scheduled to start in February 2012.
“Looking at what his past has been and what he’s done since then, definitely there’s more than one person that’s been affected in Canada,” said Clover.