BishopAccountability.org

Sentencing delayed for ex-priest guilty of sexually abusing altar boys

By Jane Sims
LondFree Press
February 19, 2019

https://bit.ly/2S930cB

Anglican priest David Norton leaves court in London.
Photo by Mike Hensen

The sentencing hearing for a former Anglican priest convicted of sexually abusing Indigenous boys almost four decades ago has been delayed.

Victim impact statements had been scheduled for Tuesday morning in the Superior Court of Justice in the case of David Norton, 72, who was convicted of three counts of indecent assault between Jan. 1, 1977 and Jan. 3, 1983 and one count of sexual assault between Jan. 4, 1983 and Dec. 31, 1984 after a trial in November.

The four victims were all altar boys at St. Andrew’s Anglican church at Chippewas of the Thames, where Norton had been a popular rector. They all came from disadvantaged families on the reserve.

The men testified that they and their families saw Norton as a beloved friend and spiritual guide. Norton took the boys on weekends and had them sleep over at his London apartment and his Belmont property. He took them to movies, bowling, parks and, for some of them, trips to the Bahamas, where he had served before returning to Canada.

The boys, now men, testified at trial that they were often given chocolate milk or Pop Shoppe pop before bed time. Norton would sleep with them. They believe they were drugged.

Norton is currently serving a four-year prison sentence for sexual interference involving another boy at a London church in the 1990s.

Norton had been an award-winning Indigenous history instructor at Western University’s King’s University College. He resigned after he was first charged in 2015. Following his convictions, he was stripped of his awards.

The victim impact statements are now set to be read into court on March 18.

Contact: jsims@postmedia.com




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