Eric Dejaeger stands trial for 8 new sex charges
Ex-priest accused of indecent assault and sexual assault against 6 victims
Ex-Roman Catholic priest Eric Dejaeger enters the Iqaluit courthouse in shackles Monday on the first day of his trial on a new set of historical sex charges. (Photo by Jeff Pelletier)
Former Roman Catholic priest Eric Dejaeger is appearing in an Iqaluit courtroom Monday to face a new slate of historical sex charges.
Dejaeger, 78, faces these charges a decade after he was sentenced to 11 years in prison for numerous sex crimes committed during his time as an Oblate priest in Igloolik between 1978 and 1982. The 32 charges he was convicted of include indecent assault, sexual assault, forcible confinement and bestiality.
He was charged again in June 2023 with more offences related to his time in Igloolik and arrested by local police in Kingston, Ont., on a Canada-wide warrant.
The new charges include historical indecent assault and sexual assault against six victims, according to court documents.
Dejaeger was released from prison in 2022 at the age of 75 on statutory release by the Parole Board of Canada.
His journey through the Canadian justice system dates back to at least 1990, when he was sentenced to five years in prison for sex-related crimes against children in Baker Lake.
Once free, he fled Canada for Belgium after to avoid prosecution on the crimes he would eventually be convicted of in Igloolik.
But after Dejaeger spent 15 years in Belgium working for the Catholic Church, a Belgian journalist discovered Dejaeger had previously renounced his Belgian citizenship. This revelation that paved the way in 2011 for his extradition back to Canada.
Monday’s trial in Iqaluit is scheduled to last two weeks.
one of to many that took their status and power to use for greed and discreet. horrible people that truly deserve the hell they preach about.