Former Manitoba priest charged in decades-old child sexual assault

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This article was published 01/08/2024 (478 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A former priest has been charged with sexually assaulting a pre-teen parishioner more than 50 years ago, in what police say could be just the beginning of a larger case against the now-81-year-old man.

A woman in her 60s told police in March 2022 that she had been sexually assaulted multiple times over the course of two years when she was a parishioner at St. Elijah Romanian Orthodox Church in Lennard, RCMP said in a news release Thursday.

She was 11 and 12 years old at the time.

Constantin Turcoane, 81, of Regina, turned himself into police after a warrant was issued for his arrest on charges of rape and sexual intercourse under 14 — charges that existed under those names in the Criminal Code at the time.

He was released from custody and will appear in court in Russell on Aug. 28.

The church is one of just two remaining in Lennard, a small community close to the Saskatchewan border in the RM of Riding Mountain West, about 400 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg. Police in nearby Russell conducted the investigation.

Russell RCMP Cpl. Brett Church said the woman, who no longer lives in the area, does not believe she was the only victim at the time.

“The survivor we’re dealing with here has told us there were others,” Church said Thursday.

Investigators believe there are people who know about the alleged incidents and are urging them to reach out to police. Church said that while there was not a police investigation at the time, allegations were made.

“From what I understand, he was transferred out pretty quick in 1970, when these allegations came out. I say allegations, I don’t know where or what happened back in 1970, but it definitely wasn’t a police investigation,” he said.

“But (church officials) moved him to Regina, and he remains there, as far as I know.”

The Free Press was unable to reach Turcoane, who operated Father’s Furniture store in Regina.

“The survivor we’re dealing with here has told us there were others.”–Cpl. Brett Church

Archpriest Alexander Rentel, the chancellor of the Orthodox Church in America, said the group had worked with the RCMP through the investigation but had no further comment.

“The Orthodox Church in America abhors the sin of sexual misconduct,” he said in an email.

“Since the time that allegations of sexual misconduct against Constantin Turcoane were first received, the Orthodox Church in America has cooperated fully with the RCMP in its investigation into these allegations.”

Turcoane’s arrest came after two years of searching for possible witnesses, taking multiple statements and obtaining a search warrant to access historic church records stored in Toronto.

RCMP also issued a media release in Saskatchewan hoping for leads. Many of the people who would be of interest in the case have either left the province or are deceased, Church said.

“Today’s the first step,” he said. “We have tried to reach out to, and have reached out to, people disclosed by the survivor, who has told us names. We’ve reached out to those, some we’ve had difficulty finding.”

Church has kept regular contact with the woman, who he said was “very emotional” that her story was being told.

“She’s happy we’re doing this at this time,” he said. “She wants this fellow to face the court system and pay for what happened, and she wants some of the people she went to church with to come forward and get involved.”

“A lot of memories are coming back to them, and maybe ones they’ve forgotten, so it’s difficult.”–Cpl. Brett Church

The incident has rocked the small community, which Church described as being “in the middle of nowhere.” There are fewer than 1,500 people living in the RM of Riding Mountain West.

“It shocked the community… people most likely have forgotten all of this. And it’s all coming back to everybody now… we’ve had phone calls here and people are upset,” he said.

“A lot of memories are coming back to them, and maybe ones they’ve forgotten, so it’s difficult.”

Anyone with information is asked to call Russell RCMP at 204-773-2675.

Coral Kendal, executive director of the Survivor’s Hope Crisis Centre, which operates in the Interlake-Eastern region, said it can be more difficult for victims to report a sexual assault in a rural community.

“…What it might mean to actually go through the steps of making the report and attending a trial, and the stigma that is more prevalent in a small town, because everybody knows everybody and is in everybody’s business,” she said.

“That figurehead or a person of power is known by the entire community, and so there’s a lot more weight to coming out against that person, and it can actually ostracize the survivor.”

It is never too late to come forward about sexual violence, Kendal said.

“Folks who are hearing this story now, and it’s bringing up feelings for them about their own experiences, it’s never too late to talk about that and to be supported it in that,” she said.

Last March, retired Catholic priest Arthur Massé was acquitted of indecent assault on an Indigenous girl at Fort Alexander Residential School in Manitoba more than 50 years ago.

Victoria McIntosh had alleged she was assaulted by Massé in a bathroom at the former Sagkeeng First Nation school sometime between 1968 and 1970, when she was around the age of 10.

Manitoba Court of King’s Bench Justice Candace Grammond told court at the time said she believed the woman had been assaulted but wasn’t convinced, based on McIntosh’s testimony, that Massé was the person who assaulted her.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

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