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	He Said "He Didn't Mean Any Harm or Hurt" By Harold Carmichael The Sudbury Star May 6, 2009 http://www.thesudburystar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1555500 COURT: Father Bernard Cloutier on trial again for sexual assault A man who testified he was sexually assaulted many times by the priest of a French-language church in Espanola and Massey in the 1970s, said he was so emotionally overwhelmed the first time it happened, he literally froze. "I heard Father (Bernard) Cloutier come in (my bedroom), undress and get into bed with me," recalled the now 49-year-old man Tuesday on the second day of Cloutier's Superior Court trial. "I laid there still and felt an erection pushing into me on my pyjamas or underwear. He inserted his penis between my legs. He pushed them down. I laid there. I was terrified. "I didn't know what to think. This was someone I trusted, loved and adored. I was very confused. I thought I had caused it. I felt very low, very low-life." Cloutier, now 68, has pleaded not guilty to 16 sex charges involving five young males from 1970 to 1983. The charges consist of seven counts of gross indecency, seven counts of gross indecency and two counts of sexual assault. The trial started Monday. The 49-year-old man, who cannot be named due to a publication ban, said his family trusted Cloutier so much he was often at their home playing cards, having dinner or attending social events The plaintiff said the sexual incidents r several years, both in Espanola and later at the family's next home in Massey. Cloutier, the court heard, was stationed at St. Louis de France Church in Espanola at the time. The man testified the incidents would end with Father Cloutier ejaculating. On some occasions, he said, the pastor fondled his genitals, causing him to ejaculate. The incidents finally stopped when the plaintiff stopped in to visit Cloutier in Kirkland Lake at his rectory several years later. The two men drank some beers and Cloutier tried to get into bed with him. "I still liked him," the man told the court. "I stopped in to say hello. We ended up in the same bed. It started again. I just said 'no. That's enough.' "I got up and was leaving. Father Cloutier said to me he was lonely, lonely in his profession. He didn't mean any harm or hurt." The man said he could not believe Father Cloutier would touch him in such a manner. "He was my friend. I thought he was my mentor. He treated me very well, special. He was a cool guy." The man said when he told his mother after the first incident, she "went into a Catholic rage. 'Don't be so foolish. That just didn't happen.' I was devastated." The man eventually told his siblings and then his father in 1990 or 1991, but said he felt no one believed his story. It was only after he received an e-mail in June 2007 that included a copy of a Sudbury Star article about charges against Cloutier that he contacted police. "For a long time, I have tried to prove to my friends, to my family, a number of things," he said, fighting to hold back tears. "It's all related to this. I finally found other victims. I am able to be believed." During cross-examination, Cloutier's lawyer, Greg Ellies asked the man why he felt the need to contact a lawyer about his evidence. The man said he did so after contacting police, not before, because he thought he would need legal representation if he had to testify. "I have never been involved in a court case," said the man, who now lives in Florida. "I thought I might need an attorney. I was told the Crown would be my attorney." In cross-examination of the first alleged victim to testify, known as R. L., Elliot asked if he had come forward with the idea of suing the Roman Catholic church. The man said he had been living with the nightmare of what happened for a long time, that it was the root cause of his alcoholism and he wanted to tell others. "You are living on $1,800 a month?" asked Ellies, to which the man replied yes. "So, the money from a lawsuit against the Catholic church would come in handy?" "Yes, it probably would," replied R. L. "(But) we are able to live on what we are making. We have to watch what we spend." The trial continues today.
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