by Glenn Taylor
Northern News Services

INUVIK (Nov 28/97) - A former Grollier Hall employee charged with 44 counts of indecent assault, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Paul Leroux, 57, was senior boys' supervisor at Grollier Hall from 1967 to 1979. He was arrested in June in Vancouver by RCMP and brought to Inuvik for questioning.

Leroux has since chosen to be tried by a judge rather than a jury in the Supreme Court of the NWT. He has also waived his right to a preliminary hearing. A trial date may be set as early as next week, say RCMP.

Another former Grollier employee got his day in court this week. Jean Comeau, appeared in Inuvik territorial court this week to answer two counts of indecent assault dating back to the 1960s.

Comeau, 63, has also waived his right to a preliminary hearing, and has chosen to be tried by a judge in the NWT Supreme Court. A trial date has not yet been set on the matter.

Jerzy George Maczynski, 67, the third former Grollier employee identified by RCMP during its lengthy investigation, pleaded guilty to five charges of indecent assault, gross indecency and buggery.

He was sentenced in August to four years in prison. The man already faces 16 years for similar offences committed at other student residences where he worked.

Leroux arrested in April

Inuvik RCMP began investigating Leroux in January, after a former Grollier resident complained to police about Leroux. His residence was search in April by Vancouver police, who found one of the largest collections of child pornography in the city's history, according to Const. Anne Drennan, media liaison officer for Vancouver City Police.

Leroux was arrested April 10 and charged with possession of child pornography. A February trial date has been set in Vancouver to answer those charges.

Leroux is also charged with obtaining the sexual services of a minor during that time.

Leroux left Inuvik for Vancouver in 1979, where for 15 years he worked as an investigator for the Canadian Human Rights Commission. Leroux was an active community member in Inuvik, serving as a justice of the peace for 12 years, a judge for family juvenile court, president of the Inuvik Soccer Association, treasurer of the NWT Ski Team, as a hockey and soccer coach, and as a Big Brother.

Leroux also worked for seven years in Beauval, Sask., as supervisor of a youth hostel there, before moving to Inuvik in 1967.