Buddhist monk convicted of molesting two girls

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This article was published 23/12/2021 (1743 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Buddhist monk who claimed his acts of molestation would keep the spirit of one of his young victim’s dead grandmother alive has been convicted of two counts of sexual assault.

Provincial court Judge Stacy Cawley convicted Southone Silaphet of two additional counts of sexual interference.

Silaphet, 72, abused his two victims between 2011 and 2019 during visits to the Wat Lao Xayaram temple on Sinclair Street.

Silaphet, who has been head monk at the temple for more than 12 years, remains free on bail. He will return to court for sentencing at a later date.

Silaphet was arrested in 2019 after a teenage girl told her school guidance counsellor she had been sexually abused. In testimony last year, the girl told court Silaphet had molested her during regular temple visits, beginning when she was in kindergarten or Grade 1, and continued until late 2019.

The abuse, which included kissing, fondling underneath her clothes and biting, had happened “for as long as I really remember,” the girl told an investigator in a police video statement provided to court.

“I didn’t really realize it was wrong until I started hearing more about it as I got older, and I felt I should tell somebody,” the girl said.

The girl said Silaphet told her that allowing him to touch her sexually would help keep the spirit of her grandma alive.

“He said that if (I) didn’t let him do what he wanted to do, it would be disrespectful to (the deceased grandma),” she said.

Silaphet warned her not to tell anyone “or police would be involved,” the girl said.

Silaphet, who lived at the temple, a converted fire hall, abused the girl in an upstairs office equipped with security cameras that allowed him to see people coming up the stairs, the girl said.

On one occasion, the girl said, Silaphet saw a man walking up the stairs and made the girl hide in a closet until he had left.

“It was confusing,” she said. “That’s when I kind of realized that this was wrong, that it wasn’t supposed to be happening.”

A second pre-teen victim said Silaphet repeatedly touched her under her clothing “in wrong places” while the two were alone in his upstairs office.

“He would tell my mom that he just wanted us to pray, even though it wouldn’t be praying,” the girl said in a separate police video interview, estimating the offences occurred over a period of three to four years.

“He’s always been nice… but he did something wrong,” she said.

Both victims testified Silaphet gave them money and repeatedly apologized for his actions.

“He would always say ‘I’m sorry,’ but he never was,” the younger girl said.

Silaphet testified with the help of a Laotian interpreter and flatly denied abusing the girls, saying he was never alone with them for more than a few minutes.

Cawley rejected Silaphet’s testimony as self-serving, saying it “appeared tailored to minimize the contact he had with the complainants and the degree of his favouritism.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca