Pedophile ex-priest still guilty, Nunavut appeal court rules

A long-time Nunavut child sex offender was unsuccessful in his appeal of a string of 2014 convictions. (FILE PHOTO)

WARNING: This article presents information that may be disturbing for some readers.

The pedophile ex-priest Eric Dejaeger remains guilty on 32 sex crimes committed mostly against Inuit children between 1976 and 1982, after the Court of Appeal of Nunavut, on Sept. 25, rejected his bid to have those convictions overturned.

“The conviction appeal will be dismissed with reasons to follow,” Judge Jo’Anne Strekaf said, after hearing lawyer submissions for about an hour and a half.

Justice Robert Kilpatrick sentenced Dejaeger in 2015 to 19 years in prison for crimes he committed mostly in Igloolik, where he worked as an Oblate missionary.

Defence lawyer Scott Cowan argued that Kilpatrick’s ruling “falls into legal error,” because Dejaeger ignored appellant evidence and treating witness accounts unequally.

The ruling relies on “banal” details, fading childhood memories, and lacks “confirmatory evidence,” Cowan said.

But Crown counsel Nick Devlin said Kilpatrick’s acquittal on 40 other counts shows that only credible evidence was considered in Dejaeger’s conviction.

“Counts on which he was acquitted span from full rapes to fondling,” Devlin said.

To be upheld in court, victim accounts needed to be clear, childlike, embellishment free, and follow a believable order, Devlin said.

One such account from among Dejaeger’s convictions came from a girl who remembered the man placing a plastic bag to catch her blood before she was raped. She was less than 10 at the time and said she blacked out from the pain.

While victim accounts did vary greatly, Devlin said they all carried one clear message. That is, “Eric Dejaeger’s lap is not a place you want to end up.”

The three court of appeal judges decided to dismiss the appeal of Kilpatrick’s convictions over a 15-minute break.

Sentence appeal

The two-part appeal also sought to have Dejaeger’s sentence reduced.

Defence counsel Yoni Rahamim argued that Kilpatrick’s sentence should have considered a five-year sentence that Dejaeger served for abusing children in Baker Lake in the years following the Igloolik offences.

He called the abuse “a continuous time period where the assaults did not stop,” and said the court is at risk of excess sentencing when crime disclosures are “staggered” and sentenced in a “piecemeal” way.

While Dejaeger received a sentence of 19 years, after time served he is required to serve 11 years. Dejaeger was not in court and is currently detained at Warkworth Institution in Ontario. According to Crown counsel, Dejaeger can legally apply for parole this coming Sunday.

In 2015, Dejaeger received an additional five-year concurrent sentence when he pleaded guilty to four 1970s sex crimes against three children in Edmonton.

The Crown called the Kilpatrick sentence “in line” with both the severity of child sex-abuse crimes and with sentencing for “mass victimizers.”

“We’re slowly coming to terms with the severity of child sex abuse,” and the lasting impacts of sexual trauma, Devlin said, calling Dejaeger’s acts “chosen,” “deliberate” and in “breach of trust” with his place of power as a priest in the community.

The appeals court will rule at a later date on the sentencing appeal.