“Priest’s sexual assault trial adjourned due to failing health” & related article

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Ronald Léger was charged with sexually abusing multiple boys over a span of decades

CBC News ·

The charges against Ronald Léger stem from a period between 1983 and 2013. (Radio-Canada)

A sexual assault trial for Winnipeg Catholic priest Ronald Léger that was set to begin this fall has been adjourned after his lawyer told court on Friday the man’s health is failing and he is in palliative care.

“My client maintains his innocence. He has from the onset of these charges,” Léger’s lawyer, Saul Simmonds, told CBC News in a written statement.

“Unfortunately he is now in palliative care and is incapacitated. The trial has been cancelled as he is not capable of being part of the proceedings.”

Léger, who is now in his 80s, was sentenced to two years in prison in 2016 after he pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual assault and one count of sexual interference.

He was charged with eight more counts in October 2016 after three more men came forward, and then more charges were laid in August 2017, when another three men came forward alleging they were also sexually assaulted by Léger in their youth.

All of the men first encountered Léger at his St. Boniface youth drop-in centre, Teen Stop Jeunesse, which he opened in 1983. Before that, he ran a drop-in centre from his home for several years while he also worked as a teacher.

The charges stemmed from a period between 1983 and 2013.

With files from Shane Gibson

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Sex-abuse trial adjourned as priest critically ill

Winnipeg Free Press