Marshall, St. Mary’s College principal in Sault Ste. Marie from 1980-85, died in 2014

By Harold Carmichael
Sault Star
August 14, 2017

http://www.saultstar.com/2017/08/14/trial-nears-in-case-against-basilian-father

Rev. William Hodgson Marshall

A trial date is expected to be set Sept. 6 in a $5-million lawsuit filed by an alleged victim of a now-dead Catholic priest at a Sudbury high school decades ago.

The victim, now 61, was 12 when he attended St. Charles College in the late 1960s, where William Hodgson Marshall was a teacher and sports coach.Marshall was later principal of St. Mary's College in Sault Ste. Marie.

According to the man's statement of claim, the sexual assaults lasted for more than a year. The alleged victim claims he was expelled from the school for reporting Marshall's behaviour.

Individuals and parties listed in the lawsuit include Marshall, the Sudbury Catholic District School Board, the Basilian Fathers and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie.

None of the allegations contained in the lawsuit have been proven in court.

The claim says the school board, the diocese and the Basilians failed in their duty to protect the victim and provide a safe environment.

The lawsuit alleges the Basilians failed to investigate Marshall when complaints first emerged about him, didn't remove him from his post, and covered up his behaviour.

The alleged victim claims he continues to suffer from the affects of the abuse, which has had a devastating effect on his mental health, job prospects and ability to form healthy relationships.

All parties in the suit deny the accusations. In its statement of defence, the Basilians' lawyer denies they knew what Marshall was doing or that they covered anything up.

The school board said in its statement that it was not responsible. It claims the Basilians ran the school and therefore were responsible for monitoring staff.

For its part, the diocese is claiming Marshall was a Basilian father and not a priest of the diocese.

A former Basilian priest and Windsor Catholic high school teacher, Marshall pleaded guilty in 2011 to 16 counts of indecent assault of minors and one count of sexual assault for incidents that occurred between 1952 and 1986.

The incidents occurred while Marshall taught at Assumption and Holy Names high schools in Windsor, plus other Catholic high schools in Toronto and Sudbury.

Marshall, St. Mary’s College principal in Sault Ste. Marie from 1980-85, died in 2014.

The case before the Sudbury court is the latest in a serious of civil lawsuits involving Marshall to come before the courts in Greater Sudbury.

Last November - and for the second time in seven months - a multi-million-dollar civil lawsuit heading to a jury trial alleging sexual abuse by a Roman Catholic priest in Greater Sudbury decades ago, was settled just prior to trial.

The case concerning a then 67-year-old man, the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of Sault Ste. Marie, the Basilian Fathers of Toronto and Marshall, was resolved and dismissed without costs at a Superior Court of Justice pre-trial meeting the week before.

Rob Talach, of Beckett Litigation Lawyers in London, Ont., said in an interview the lawsuit was settled in the 67-year-old man's favour, but could not go into details due to a confidentiality condition.

Talach said his legal team already had a June 2011 criminal conviction against Marshall involving sexual abuse against the 67-year-old to work with as the civil suit progressed.

"(Marshall) littered the province with bodies," said the lawyer. "There was no question it (sexual abuse) occurred "¦ What is a life that was deviated from its normal course worth?"

The lawsuit, which was launched back in February 2010, was seeking a total of $4.25 million in damages as well as court costs. Of the $4.25 million, $2 million was for pecuniary (relating to money) damages, while $1 million was for punitive and exemplary damages.

The lawsuit alleged Marshall engaged in activities with the plaintiff in his capacity as a priest and teacher at St. Charles College, counselling him in religion, Catholic education and other matters including tutoring the plaintiff in mathematics.

The abuse was alleged to have begun when the plaintiff was 14 and on many occasions over the following months. "Marshall repeatedly sexually abused, assaulted, and molested the plaintiff, exposed him to prurient sexual behaviour and encouraged him to engage in deviant and prurient sexual behaviour," according to the suit.

Those activities, the lawsuit alleged, included fondling the plaintiff's naked body, masturbation of the plaintiff, performing oral sex on the plaintiff, and forcing the plaintiff to masturbate/fondle him.

"In order to facilitate the abuses Marshall engaged in a pattern of behaviour intended to make the plaintiff feel that he was special in the eyes of Marshall the Church and God; and in order to facilitate the abuses Marshall also engaged in a pattern of behaviour intended to make the plaintiff feel that his soul was in jeopardy," according to the suit.

All of the activities Marshall forced the plaintiff to participate in, the lawsuit alleged, were related to priest-parishioner and/or teacher-student activities.

The lawsuit alleged that at all times, Marshall was acting in the course of his duties as a priest of the Roman Catholic Church and the Diocese "and was using the aforementioned rules, principles and ideologies to further his attempts to manipulate the plaintiff and engage in deviant activities."

Also alleged was that the diocese failed to investigate Marshall's background, character and psychological state prior to accepting him to serve in the diocese, failed to document, discipline or expel Marshall for his shortcomings, failed to properly supervise, control and give guidance to Marshall, failed to remove Marshall from his duties upon learning of the allegations of sexual and other inappropriate conduct, and failed to take steps to fully investigate the activities of Marshall once it was fully aware of his shortcomings in an effort to locate and assist any victims,

The lawsuit also stated that the Basilian Fathers of Toronto order "provided Marshall with the opportunity and means to come into contact with the plaintiff. It fostered a relationship between Marshall and the plaintiff."

The lawsuit stated the conduct of Marshall, the diocese and the order were all "harsh, high-handed and malicious" in nature.