Raymond Lahey to be sentenced on kid porn raps January 4
Ottawa Sun
BY TONY SPEARS ,OTTAWA SUN
FIRST POSTED: | UPDATED:
Ex-bishop Raymond Lahey’s depraved collection of boy porn featured sodomy, humiliation and religion.
One boy is naked but for a crucifix and rosary around his neck. Another is paddled by a youth in a monk’s habit.
“I’ve come to recognize that I became addicted to Internet pornography on a very indiscriminate basis,” Lahey, 71, told his sentencing hearing Tuesday.
“Despite my own distaste for it, and my own internal convulsions, I could not break it.”
The former bishop of Antigonish, N.S. was arrested at the Ottawa airport with 588 child porn images, as well as videos and stories, when he returned from England on Sept. 15, 2009.
Judge Kent Kirkland will sentence him Jan. 4.
The Crown wants 18 to 22 months in jail while the defence has asked for the mandatory minimum sentence of one year in jail.
“I know that I’ve done wrong, not only something illegal, but something that goes against the moral principles I believe in,” Lahey said.
Crown prosecutor David Elhadad didn’t disagree.
He emphasized the twisted nature of the material, showing pictures to the judge of a nude boy hogtied, a piece of duct tape sealing his mouth.
Lahey’s films starred young boys in their mid-teens performing degrading and sexual acts alone, in groups, and with adults.
Elhadad gave only the most cursory descriptions, loathe even to read out the film titles.
But he noted the smut flicks and photos showed the same repugnant motifs found in Lahey’s erotic literature.
It suggests a disturbing fixation.
Worse, Lahey — who had negotiated a Catholic church sex abuse settlement — would have been well aware of the damage done by molesters, Elhadad said.
“And he must have known that the conduct in which he was engaging … would attract some criminal sanctions.” Lahey, however, won a minor victory when the judge awarded him two-for-one credit for his pre-sentence custody.
He has been in jail since May when he pleaded guilty to importing child pornography and volunteered to get a head start on his sentence.
The extra credit means he could be sentenced to time served.
In his statement, Lahey urged other child porn connoisseurs “to look at what they’re doing, to cease it and to seize the help that they need.” “Because ultimately it is unhealthy, because it destroys relationships and above all — where it involves pictures and stories of children — because it causes genuine harm to them.”
tony.spears@sunmedia.ca
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‘I became addicted to porn,’ ex-bishop says
London Free Press online
Last Updated: December 20, 2011 6:50pm
By TONY SPEARS, QMI AGENCY
- Bishop Raymond Lahey appeared in Ottawa court Wednesday May 4, 2011. (TONY CALDWELL/QMI AGENCY
OTTAWA — Ex-bishop Raymond Lahey, caught with child porn at the Ottawa airport, spoke candidly Tuesday about his rampant Internet porn addiction.
“I know that I’ve done wrong, not only something illegal, but something that goes against the moral principles I believe in,” Lahey said.
“I can only say that I’ve come to recognize that I became addicted to Internet pornography on a very indiscriminate basis. Despite my own distaste for it, and my own internal convulsions, I could not break it.”
The former bishop from Antigonish, N.S., was arrested at the Ottawa airport with 588 child porn images as well as videos and stories when he returned from England on Sept. 15, 2009.
To other child porn connoisseurs, he urged them “very strongly to look at what they’re doing, to cease it and to seize the help that they need.”
“And not just because this is something illegal, but because ultimately it is unhealthy,” Lahey said.
“It destroys relationships and above all — where it involves pictures and stories of children — because it causes genuine harm to them.”
Lahey will be sentenced Jan. 4 for importing child porn that included bondage photos of young boys wearing religious trappings.
Earlier Tuesday, the Crown gave its submissions in Lahey’s sentencing hearing, outlining his pornography collection in graphic detail.
One photo featured a naked boy wearing a rosary and crucifix around his neck.
In another, a naked young boy is paddled by a youth in a monk’s habit.
Other images showed more conventional acts of bondage — one nude boy is hogtied while another is on all fours attached to a dog leash.
The videos are equally disturbing. Crown prosecutor David Elhadad was unwilling to read even the filenames in open court.
Elhadad then moved on to the stories.
In the Masturbation Chronicles, the teen boy protagonist relates how his male cousin “filled his mind with impure thoughts that altar boys shouldn’t have, according to Father Raymond.”
Elhadad was not sympathetic to claims that Lahey has become a pariah.
The abuse victims depicted in Lahey’s depraved collection must live knowing those images are on the Internet for eternity, Elhadad said.
“They, sir, are the true victims in this case.”
Lahey — who had negotiated a Catholic church sex abuse settlement — would have been well aware of the damage done by molesters, Elhadad said.
“And he must have known that the conduct in which he was engaging … would attract some criminal sanctions.”
Elhadad is seeking a 18- to 22-month jail sentence and two years of probation for Lahey.
Defence lawyer Michael Edelson has asked for the mandatory minimum sentence of one year in jail.
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