Back to prison for Paul Leroux
Notorious sex offender from Grollier Hall sentenced to three years in Saskatchewan
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, December 23, 2013
BATTLEFORD, SASK
A man notorious as a sex offender from his time as a residential school supervisor many years ago in Inuvik has again been sent to jail - this time in Saskatchewan.
Paul Leroux, who was sentenced to 10 years in jail in 1998 for sexual assault charges stemming from his time as supervisor of Grollier Hall in Inuvik, was again found guilty of sexual assault and sentenced to three years in jail by a Saskatchewan court earlier this month. - NNSL file photo |
On Dec. 12, Paul Leroux was sentenced to three years imprisonment on eight counts of indecent assault and two counts of gross indecency.
The charges date back to when Leroux worked as a dormitory supervisor at the Beauval Indian Residential School in Beauval, Sask., from 1959 to 1967, except for the school year 1961 to 1962.
Leroux was previously convicted of three counts of indecent assault, attempted buggery, attempted indecent assault and nine counts of gross indecency, and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in 1998 in Inuvik.
The offences in Inuvik took place between 1967 and 1979, while he was supervisor of Grollier Hall, a residence for out-of-town boys attending school in the town. The victims ranged in age from 13 to 19.
On the charges in Saskatchewan, the Crown had asked for a sentence of 11 years. However, he was handed a sentence of just three years by the Court of Queen's Bench in Battleford after a three-week trial in front of a judge alone.
Crown attorney Mitch Piche has recommended the sentence be appealed to the Court of Appeal for Saskatchewan.
"It's, from my point of view, not a reasonable sentence," he said.
Piche explained a sentence can be reviewed if there is an error of principle which results in a sentence that's not proportional to the gravity of the offence and the moral blameworthiness of the offender.
"In this case, we feel the moral blameworthiness of the offender is very, very high, and, of course, he has multiple counts here," he said. "From our point of view, even one of these charges, the more serious ones, are worth four or five years in jail."
The Crown attorney noted the charges include seven sexual assaults involving major violations of a young person's bodily integrity. The major offences were generally against boys aged 13 to 15, while offences against younger children involved such things as fondling.
"The same type of charges that he was dealing with in Inuvik," said Piche.
In fact, the Crown attorney noted the sentence in Inuvik figured prominently in the most recent sentencing, explaining the 73-year-old Leroux - who represented himself before the court - suggested that, if the complainants in Saskatchewan had been more vigilant and come forward at the time of the Inuvik matter, he would have received a global sentence on all charges, both from Inuvik and Saskatchewan, and he would have received 13 years.
"His sentencing at Inuvik was front and centre of his argument as far as sentencing here," Piche said.
In fact, the Crown attorney noted the judge did take the sentence from Inuvik into account when passing the most recent sentence, despite his argument against that based on a ruling of the Court of Appeal of Manitoba in the infamous case of Graham James, a junior hockey coach convicted of molesting players.
That appeal court increased the sentence for James after determining the trial judge gave too much consideration to a previous sentence on separate, but similar, charges.
Since being paroled in 2002 on the NWT charges, Leroux had been living in Vancouver.
