Shock as Catholic bishop who brokered multi-million dollar sex abuse settlement is found GUILTY of importing child porn
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 4:52 PM on 5th May 2011
Translation by Autumnson Blog
A Roman Catholic bishop has been found guilty of importing child pornography in a case that has sent shockwaves through Canada and the Church.
一位羅馬天主教主教已定罪犯有進口兒童色情製品，在一宗案件已發送出衝擊波在加拿大和教會。
Bishop Raymond Lahey was stopped at Ottawa Airport after border guards found 588 images and dozens of videos of naked boys as young as eight on his computer and phone.
雷蒙德雷希主教在渥太華機場被截停，在邊境警衛於他的電腦和手機，發現588張圖像和幾十條視頻，都是細至僅8歲的裸體男孩後。
He was also carrying a bag of personal sex toys. He was found guilty on the charge today.
他還携有一袋個人的性玩具，他今天對指控被定罪。
雷蒙德雷希主教在渥太華機場被截停，在警衛於他的電腦和手機及一袋個人的性玩具，發現588張圖像和幾十條視頻，都是細至僅8歲的裸體男孩後
It is extremely rare for a bishop to be found guilty of a criminal charge. The case will also likely act as a test of the Vatican's new strict sex abuse laws, which it approved last year.
它是極為罕見一位主教在刑事指控被定罪，此案也將有可能作為測試梵蒂岡的新嚴格性虐待法律，那在去年被批准。
The bishop’s crimes are especially shocking for Canadians because Lahey was the public face of an historic apology and $15million (£8million) settlement for victims of sexual molestation by a priest in his diocese.
主教的罪行是特別地令加拿大人震驚，因為雷希是歷史性道歉，及由一位神父在他的教區給1,500萬美元（800萬英鎊）予性騷擾的受害者作出和解的公眾面孔。
Pope Benedict even asked top church officials in Canada to do what they could to alleviate the distress caused by the arrest of such a senior figure.
Lahey was charged after being intercepted at Ottawa Airport while returning home from a trip to Europe in September 2009.
Police claimed the 70-year-old former head of the diocese of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, was targeted after being evasive during questioning and refusing to make eye contact with border guards.
Further investigations revealed extensive travel since 2005 to countries notorious as sources of child pornography, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Spain and Germany.
A forensic examination of Lahey’s computer and several memory sticks revealed hundreds of files and around 60 videos, some of them showing boys between the ages of eight and 12 engaged in sexual acts.
He was also in possession of numerous texts featuring themes of humiliation, degradation and slavery of young boys.
After some of the images were discovered Lahey initially denied having an interest in child pornography, but told the officers that ‘he was attracted to males aged 20 to 21'.
The native of Newfoundland and Labrador resigned from the Antigonish diocese the day after he was charged but before his crimes became public.
Lahey today pleaded guilty in an Ottawa courtroom to importing child pornography but told a judge he was not guilty of possessing child pornography for the purpose of
The case is highly significant because law enforcement agencies have long looked the other way in prosecuting sex-related offences where high-ranking church officials were involved.
It will also act as a test of the Vatican's stringent sex abuse code, approved last year.
The new rules take away protection for bishops and cardinals who abuse minors - allowing them to be investigated and punished in the same way as Catholic priests.
Father Francis Morrisey, a professor of canon law at the Roman Catholic University of Saint Paul in Ottawa, claimed it was highly unusual for a bishop to face criminal charges.
‘Pornography was only formally added to the church laws in May 2010 and with this case, it shows how seriously those decisions have been taken,’ he said.
The Vatican claimed today it was considering ‘appropriate disciplinary or penal’ action against Lahey: ‘The Catholic Church condemns sexual exploitation of all kind, in particular when minors are targeted,’ a statement said.
While the church awaits his sentencing before continuing with its own trial, survivors of sexual abuse believe the hearing could be used as a precedent internationally.
‘We hope that the Lahey case is a sign that the era of deference by civil authorities toward bishops may be coming to an end,’ said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org.
Lahey, who is facing a mandatory 12-month minimum prison term, voluntarily entered custody today. The images and videos will be viewed by the judge in private before official sentencing.
In addition to the criminal charges, Lahey also faces accusations in a civil suit of sexually abusing an orphanage resident in the early 1980s.
The Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John's, Newfoundland was closed in 1990 after it was revealed that staff had systematically abused some 300 residents over several decades.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1383629/Shockwaves-sent-Catholic-Church-bishop-GUILTY-importing-child-pornography.html
性虐待醜聞是'證據魔鬼在梵蒂岡內'：教宗的首席驅魔 神父
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