Priest’s sex assaults destroyed grieving teen’s faith, Crown tells sentence hearing

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This article was published 11/06/2020 (2303 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

He was 15 years old and still mourning the death of his mother when he was sent to live at the St. Boniface Minor Seminary in 1982.

He quickly became the target of a priest who would repeatedly molest him in his bed.

Now, nearly 40 years later, prosecutors are urging a judge to sentence 72-year-old retired Roman Catholic priest Roland Lanoie to 15 months in jail.

Lanoie “harmed (the victim) in a very significant and lasting way and actually destroyed his faith,” Crown attorney Dayna Queau-Guzzi told provincial court Judge Ryan Rolston at a sentencing hearing last week.

Lanoie pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault for offences spanning the years 1982 to 1988.

Lanoie, who was ordained in 1982, began offending against the victim “almost immediately” after being hired as associate director at the seminary that same year, Queau-Guzzi said.

Court heard Lanoie visited the boy’s bedroom at night on several occasions and rubbed his penis over the sheets.

“On some occasions the victim would be awake, and on others he would already be asleep,” Queau-Guzzi said. “The victim would respond by swatting the accused’s hands away with his hand and he would eventually stop and leave the room.”

Lanoie left the seminary the following autumn, assuming duties at Christ the King Church, but maintained contact with the boy, taking him on occasional outings, Queau-Guzzi said.

In 1983, the two went out to a movie and the boy ended up sleeping at Lanoie’s home. The boy slept in a spare room and barricaded the door with furniture.

When Lanoie later tried to enter the room, he questioned the boy about the blocked door and was allowed inside. Lanoie again placed his hand over the boy’s penis over a blanket. Again, the boy swatted Lanoie’s hand away and he left the room.

The victim was living with his sister and her family in 1988 when he arrived home to find Lanoie at the kitchen table. The victim offered Lanoie a ride in his new car, during which time Lanoie touched his thigh three times. The victim removed Lanoie’s hand, told him “I’m not gay,” and to never come back to his house again.

The victim reported the incidents to the Archdiocese of St. Boniface in January 2017. In a subsequent interview with the archbishop, Lanoie said he interpreted the victim’s physical resistance as “playful,” not “refusal.”

“This is a child Mr. Lanoie is talking about, a child in his care,” Queau-Guzzi said. “His comments demonstrate a complete lack of insight into his behaviour.”

Lanoie resigned from the archdiocese and was arrested in October 2018.

In a victim impact statement provided to court, the now 53-year-old man said Lanoie used his mother’s death “to his advantage to take my innocence and youth away.”

The man said the abuse had a detrimental impact on his attitude toward sex and he suffers from anxiety and depression.

Defence lawyer Evan Roitenberg said Lanoie fully appreciates the damaging impacts of his actions, as shown in a letter of apology written in 2017 that was not read by the victim.

“I had been assigned to the (seminary)… with a mission to be a shepherd and a witness to God’s love and I failed you,” Lanoie wrote. “You should have been able to look to me as a father and I betrayed that.”

Lanoie will return to court for sentencing at a later date.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca