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	Lawsuit Filed against Diocese of Yarmouth Alleging Sexual Abuse by Priest By Tina Comeau Vanguard January 6, 2010 http://www.novanewsnow.com/article-418235-Lawsuit-filed-against-Diocese-of-Yarmouth-alleging-sexual-abuse-by-priest.html Another lawsuit has been filed against the Roman Catholic Diocese in Yarmouth involving allegations of sexual abuse involving a former priest, but it's not the same priest named in lawsuits that were filed a year ago. These allegations involve Father Raoul Deveau, who is deceased. The allegations are that over a period of nearly 10 years starting in the early 1970s, he routinely sexually abused a girl named Linda Deschamp. He took the girl into his home to live with him when she was just 12. She came from a large family, a poor family that didn't have much, and a family that was devoutly Catholic. But the priest's intentions, the lawsuit alleges, were anything but noble. Over the years Deschamp was told not to share "their secret." If anyone asked, she was to tell people that Father Deveau was her uncle. Deschamp is now in her early 50s and living in Halifax. And although it is painfully difficult – yet also in a way liberating – to speak publicly about what happened to her, she has gone public with her story because she says what the church did to her was wrong. On Dec. 24 Deschamp filed a lawsuit in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Yarmouth. The lawsuit also names Archbishop Anthony Mancini, who now presides over the diocese. Like it has with other lawsuits alleging sexual abuse involving a priest that belonged the diocese, the Yarmouth diocese has declined comment on the lawsuit. None of the allegations have been proven in court. Born in Meteghan, Father Deveau was ordained into the priesthood in Halifax in March 1943. During his time as a priest he had many pastoral assignments, including in places like Digby, Bridgewater, Amherst, Kentville, Comeau's Hill, and Plympton. In the early 1970s he was transferred to Shelburne. The lawsuit Deschamp has filed, along with her lawyer John McKiggan – who has represented hundreds of sexual abuse victims over the years – allege that Father Deveau was sent to the St. Thomas Parish in Shelburne because of complaints involving possible sexual misconduct with another girl at another parish. That girl, now a grown woman, filed a lawsuit a few years ago against the church, also alleging sexual abuse at the hands of Father Deveau. She alleges the abuse took place while Father Deveau worked at the Plympton parish in Digby County. The lawsuit also alleges that the priest battered her. It is in Shelburne where Father Deveau met up with Deschamp and her family. Times were hard for the family and the priest helped them by providing food and clothing. He also offered Deschamp a job cleaning the church rectory when she was 12 years old. She claims he sexually abused her while she was on the job, and then for the many years that followed when he took her into his home to live with him to help the family out. During the time she was living with the priest Deschamp's parents separated so she really had no other home to go to. Plus the priest had turned her against many in her family. In addition to this she was, in a sense, being held captive with no one stepping in to help. The priest even took his "niece" with him on vacations. The lawsuit filed with the Nova Scotia Supreme Court alleges that the bishop at the time, Bishop Austin Burke, knew that Deschamp was not Father Deveau's niece. Still, nothing was done to halt the living arrangement. When complaints eventually did arise about the arrangement, Father Deveau was transferred to another parish, taking his "niece" with him. After leaving Shelburne he served in parishes in Saint Bernard, Melbourne and Annapolis Royal. Eventually Deschamp was able to get a job and eliminate her reliance on the priest for food and shelter. When she knew she could survive on our own, she told the priest she was leaving and she told him to leave her alone. "That was the scariest moment of my life," she said in an interview with CBC radio. The living arrangement had lasted until she was 21 years old. Father Deveau died in October 1982 at the age of 65. As for what impact the years of sexual abuse has had on her, Deschamp says she has lived a life filled with depression, anxiety and nervousness. She was never able to fully trust anyone in her adult life. She's called it a very lonely life. As for why she's coming forward now, about 30 years after the abuse ended, she said it is time to right a wrong – a wrong she blames the church for. This isn't the only lawsuit filed against the Diocese of Yarmouth alleging sexual abuse by a priest. Last year several lawsuits were filed against the Archdiocese of Halifax and the Diocese of Yarmouth by men who say as young boys they were sexually assaulted by Father Adolphe LeBlanc, then the parish priest in Wedgeport. By the middle part of last year, 11 men had filed lawsuits claiming that they were abused by Father LeBlanc while he was the parish priest in Wedgeport and Salmon River. Father LeBlanc died in January 1971.
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