Ten years for former boys supervisor
Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services
INUVIK (Aug 17/98) - Former Grollier Hall supervisor Paul Leroux has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
After the sentence was handed down Saturday in Inuvik, many in the filled-to-capacity court room began hugging each other, as they had Friday when Leroux was found guilty of 14 counts of sexual abuse committed at the residential school in Inuvik during the 1960s and 1970s.
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Two views of the past Confessed child-abuser Paul Leroux and his alleged victims last week told very different versions of what happened at Grollier Hall more than 20 years ago. "I saw them as more adult than they were," Leroux said after explaining he worshipped the boys he's accused of abusing. Leroux said his aim was "making (the boys) happy, making them feel good." A little later he said "this does not excuse (his actions) but provides some insight." Leroux, who was raised as a devout Roman Catholic in Granby, Quebec, said he was sexually abused when he sang in the church choir as a young teenager. Still, he said he was not aware, at the time he was at the school, his actions were sexually abusive. Though he admitted he took photos of naked boys at Grollier Hall, he denied he ever used photos he took of the boys -- photos entered as evidence -- for a sexual purpose. He also said he never showed anyone the photos. Leroux, like some of the alleged victims, cried while giving testimony. Earlier in the week, several alleged victims gave damning Crown testimony. One man said Leroux held a knife to him when he was a boy, and forced him to perform sex acts. Many mentioned a pattern escalating from hugs and kisses to genital fondling to oral sex and, in one case, to anal sex. |
Just before delivering the sentence, which includes the 14 and a half months already spent in custody, Justice John Vertes said Leroux, "is not here as a scapegoat for the residential school system," but instead was being sentenced for specific crimes based on evidence in the trial.
Vertes considered how Leroux said he was sorry for what he did to his former students, how he acknowledged he alone was responsible for the acts and how Leroux has not reoffended in the last 19 years.
Leroux's 14 convictions include nine cases of gross indecency, three counts of indecent assault, one charge of attempted indecent assault and one attempted buggery.
Vertes dismissed seven charges where Leroux successfully pleaded not guilty while pronouncing Leroux guilty on five other counts. Leroux started the two-week trial by pleading guilty to nine charges.
"There is no evidence of force or threats to compel students into sexual activity," Vertes said while reading his verdict.
"The methods he used were to entice, encourage and what he called affection."
Vertes rejected testimony from one witness who told of an encounter with a significant difference from the others -- a meeting where he said Leroux threatened him with a knife.
Still, Leroux was found guilty of attempt to commit buggery in that offence.
"Clearly in a position of authority.... (Leroux) systematically, over a period of years, abused that trust," Vertes said.
During a hearing to help Vertes decide on the severity of sentencing, the Crown called Dr. Peter Collins, a paedophilia expert from Toronto, as a witness.
Collins explained the content of some of the material found in a child pornography seizure police made of Leroux's Vancouver apartment.
Much of the evidence displayed a fetish for boys' feet, Collins said.
