The Windsor Star
August 12, 2011 1:50 PM
By Trevor Wilhelm
David Turrill, who is suing the Roman Catholict Diocese of London for alleged abuse at the hands of a priest in the 1970s, talks to The Windsor Star’s Trevor Wilhelm in Tilbury on Friday, Aug. 12, 2011. Photograph by: Trevor Wilhelm/Screen Grab, The Windsor Star
TILBURY, Ont. — Four area men are accusing a Roman Catholic priest with sexually abusing them in the Tilbury area and are suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of London for $8-million.
The men allege that Father Bernard Alphonse Robert abused them during the 1970s, when they were altar boys at St. Francis Xavier Church in Tilbury.
One of the victims, David Turrill, 44, said during a press conference that the emotional damage from the alleged abuse has carried over into his adult life.
“I’ve been through so many jobs, drinking, dope, promiscuous behaviour, living on the streets,” he said. “It just affectged everything in my life.”
Turrill also said that he spent much of his adult life wandering across the continent and attempted suicide on two occasions.
Fr. Robert, who died some time in the 1990s, also served as pastor in churches in Blenheim, Watford, Wallaceburg and Alvinston.