An advocacy group is asking the Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus to urge a Canadian judge to hand down a harsh sentence to a former central Ohio priest who was convicted of sexually touching a teen in British Columbia.
The Rev. Philip Jacobs was found guilty in February of sexually touching a person between the ages of 14 and 18. He could be sent to prison for five years when he is sentenced on Wednesday.
Carol Zamonski of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests was Downtown yesterday outside St. Joseph Cathedral, the seat of the Columbus Diocese. She delivered a letter to the adjacent offices of Bishop Frederick Campbell, asking him to use his pulpit and parish bulletins to encourage Jacobs’ victims to speak out.
“The more victims and survivors there are who come forward, the stronger the case is against this predator and the likelier it is that this predator will be taken out of circulation,” Zamonski said.
The Saanich News in British Columbia has reported that a prosecutor suggested a four- to six-month sentence for Jacobs, followed by two years of probation and inclusion on a national sex-offender registry and DNA databank. Jacobs’ attorney, Chris Considine, said the defense has requested that any prison time be served with house arrest.
Deacon Thomas Berg Jr., chancellor of the Columbus Diocese, said Campbell was traveling and would review Zamonski’s letter upon his return.
“In regard to the Jacobs case, the Diocese of Columbus continues to urge anyone who may have been harmed to contact civil authorities as well as the diocesan victims-assistance coordinator,” he said.
According to court testimony, Jacobs ran his hand up and down the leg of a boy he was tutoring at St. Joseph the Worker School in Saanich. Jacobs served at the school in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The victim testified that he lay on a couch in the priest’s home, with his legs over Jacobs’ lap, and that Jacobs touched his genitals, according to the newspaper.
Considine has said that the priest maintains he unintentionally brushed the boy’s groin.
In central Ohio, Jacobs served at St. Anthony parish on the North Side from 1975 to 1979; St. Philip the Apostle parish on the East Side from 1979 to 1981; and St. Paul the Apostle parish in Westerville from 1986 to 1989.
He also taught philosophy at the Pontifical College Josephinum on the Far North Side from 1986 to 1993.
During his trial in British Columbia in December and January, Jacobs testified that he took teen boys on overnight trips when he worked in Ohio, intending to introduce them to masturbation.
When Jacobs was arrested on the Canadian charges in 2010, a spokesman for the Diocese of Columbus told The Dispatch that diocesan officials had received about 10 credible reports of abuse by Jacobs in central Ohio and that all allegations had been passed on to police.
To reach the Diocese of Columbus victims-assistance coordinator, call 614-224-2251 or email helpisavailable@colsdioc.org.
jviviano@dispatch.com
@JoAnneViviano