Ex-priest Eric Dejaeger facing 8 new sexual assault charges

Former Catholic priest Eric Dejaeger was arrested Wednesday and charged with eight counts of historical sexual assault, Nunavut RCMP announced in a news release Wednesday afternoon.

Dejaeger, who at one time worked in Igloolik as an Oblate missionary, was arrested by local police in Kingston, Ont., on a Canada-wide warrant.

The charges stem from investigations conducted between 2011 and 2015. It’s not clear when the crimes are alleged to have happened.

RCMP said Dejaeger is being transported to Iqaluit and will appear at the Nunavut Court of Justice for a bail hearing Thursday at 1:30 p.m.

In 2015, Dejaeger was convicted on more than 30 counts of sexual abuse between 1974 and 1989.

He was sentenced to 19 years in prison but was freed in 2022 at age 75 on statutory release under the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, which states a federal prisoner must be freed after serving two-thirds of their sentence.

In Dejaeger’s case, that included time spent in jail leading up to his conviction.

Dejaeger was previously handed a five-year jail sentence on sex-related crimes in 1990. After he was released, he fled Canada for Belgium to avoid prosecution on other alleged crimes, according to a Parole Board of Canada document in 2022.

“I think people like that … should rot in jail, especially for the crimes they committed,” federal Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller said following Dejaeger’s release last year.

The ex-priest’s convictions include multiple counts of sexual assault including rape, buggery, indecent assault, sexual assault, forcible confinement and bestiality against 25 victims.

In 1989, Dejaeger was diagnosed with pedophilia during a court-ordered psychological assessment.