Ottawa Sun

First posted: Tuesday, April 19, 2011 11:06:44 EDT AM

By Tony Spears, Ottawa Sun

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Time has weakened the predatory pederast priest and teacher, William J. Allen, but only strengthened the rage and resolve of one boy he sexually molested decades ago.

The teen boy, a man now, condemned the 81-year-old Allen as a “grotesque, disgusting example of evil” in a victim impact statement he read Tuesday.

The former St. Pius X high school teacher pleaded not guilty to two counts of indecent assault against the victim and one brother, but did not contest the facts read in by the Crown, which included a dozen assaults on a third brother.

Allen was found guilty and given a nine-month conditional sentence — sparing him jail — and 12-months probation for the assaults that took place from 1969 to 1977.

Wrestling was the pretext, whether in church or the high school.

Allen, sometimes changing out of his priestly garb, would lock his legs around the boy’s leg.

He’d rhythmically rock himself to sexual relief, a stain seeping across the front of his pants.

For one boy it was a post-choir ritual, every Wednesday for five years.

With another, Allen would trade meals for rectory wrestling matches.

“Perhaps one day, your Lord may forgive you,” the victim said to Allen. “I haven’t.”

“I am gratified to know that you will go to your grave with the knowledge of your wrongs, and that at some time, either in this world or the next, you will confront your maker and answer for your appalling depravity.”

The sentence was a joint position, but Crown prosecutor Meaghan Cunningham called attention to Allen’s frailty and poor health.

“But for that, the Crown would certainly be seeking a significant period of real jail,” she said.

“A sentence of jail would clearly be quite appropriate,” said Judge Hugh Fraser, but he agreed to the position.

Allen will serve the first half of his sentence under house arrest. He was also ordered to provide a DNA sample and will be placed on the national sex offender registry for 20 years.

Fraser hoped the sentence, “in some small way,” might give the victim some peace.

“There’s really nothing more for this court to add,” he said. “You’ve said it so well yourself.”

“You robbed me of my faith, you robbed me of my self-esteem and you robbed me of my dignity,” the victim said to his abuser.

“Mr. Allen, rot in hell — and may God have mercy on your soul.”

Reader’s comments

• 
  Jim Stevenson
• The disgusting thing about the Allen case is that it was well known by the students at the school and reported to the administration on more than a few occasions and yet nothing was done.