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  Sentence Not Enough

By Laura Stricker
Sudbury Star
June 10, 2011

http://www.thesudburystar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3164823

The sentencing of two years in jail for a former priest's assault of 17 victims is not nearly enough, the executive director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said Thursday.

"Every minute a child predator is behind bars kids are safer, so in that sense we are grateful, but given the devastation he's caused, we feel very sad for his victims, at least some of whom we know wanted a more severe sentence," said David Clohessy, who's been following the Rev. William Hodgson Marshall case since charges were first brought against him in May 2010.

Marshall, 88, a former principal and teacher at St. Charles College, was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty to 17 counts of indecent assault.

He was also placed on probation for three years following his release and ordered to report to police to be registered on the national sex offender registry for 20 years, the

reported.

From 1953 on, Marshall assaulted 17 victims in the Sudbury, Toronto and Windsor areas.

"Whatever sentence I impose will not make up for what happened," Ontario Court Justice Lloyd Dean told Marshall.

But the judge added he hoped the sentence will provide the victims and their families "some measure of healing," the Windsor newspaper said.

Clohessy said that, contrary to the judge's statement, "there's a temptation by victims to think if only my predator is ... suspended or jailed, I'll get better. And unfortunately, no external event can magically cure decades of suffering."

Marshall's lawyer, Andrew Bradie, had described Marshall as a frail, elderly man battling skin cancer, the Windsor Star said.

Clohessy, who was abused by a priest as a teenager, said child predators become more dangerous as they get older.

"It's hard for people to understand, but child predators rarely stop, even when they're elderly or infirm. We know of wheelchair-bound and literally bedridden predators who have molested kids.

"As counterintuitive as it may seem, often the older a molester gets, the more dangerous he is. He looks less physically threatening ... yet he has become often even more cunning at choosing and grooming victims who are less able to tell or resist or be believed."

Last fall, Greater Sudbury Police charged Marshall with six counts of gross indecency and six counts of indecent assault related to the Sudbury victims. The Sudbury charges were transferred to Windsor in April.

Marshall was first charged with one count of sexual assault related to alleged incidents in Windsor in the early 1980s.

In the ensuing months, 15 more men and one woman from cities where Marshall was assigned during his five decades as an active priest came forward to say he had assault them, too.

One of the alleged Sudbury victims is Ted Holland. Holland says Marshall sexually assaulted him on three occasions in 1969. Holland could not be reached for comment yesterday.

lstricker@thesudburystar.com

 
 

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