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  Church to Co-Operate with Police

By Rob Tripp
Peterborough Examiner
April 24, 2010

http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2549371

-The top Anglican cleric in Kingston says police investigating a sexual abuse complaint against former choirmaster John Gallienne have not asked for the church's help but it is prepared to assist.

"If we are approached, we will co-operate fully and openly with the authorities to the best of our ability," Rt. Rev. George Bruce told QMI Agency in an interview.

Bruce is the Bishop of the Diocese of Ontario, an eastern Ontario district that covers five counties and includes 45 parishes, including St. George's Cathedral.

Gallienne was the charismatic organist and choirmaster at St. George's for more than 15 years, until he was exposed in 1990 as a pedophile who preyed on choirboys as young as eight years old. Complaints were made about Gallienne years before he was prosecuted.

He was sentenced to six years in prison after he pleaded guilty to molesting 15 boys. He has been living in Ottawa since he was released from prison.

Last week, he was charged by Kingston Police with indecent assault on a young boy between 1980 and 1982, at a time when Gallienne was a respected figure in Anglican music programs.

"I think it's safe to say that I was shocked," Bruce said. "I was not in the diocese when the events occurred in the 1990s."

Bruce, who became bishop of Ontario in 2002, said his first thoughts were for the person who filed the complaint.

"Another 20 years have gone on since those events and this individual has had to be burdened by the pain of that," he said.

"At the moment, it's an allegation; the court system has got to work its way through but I've always believed if one person was abused that's one too many," Bruce said.

 
 

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