CANADA
Ottawa Citizen
By LAURA ARMSTRONG, The Ottawa Citizen
April 16, 2012
OTTAWA — A former priest from Eganville was handed a nine-month conditional sentence last week after being charged with indecently assaulting a local teen more than 30 years ago.
Monsignor Robert Borne, 63, will serve the first five months under house arrest, with the latter four months to be served within the community, Justice Julianne Parfett said at Msgr. Borne’s sentencing hearing Tuesday, April 10th at the Pembroke courthouse.
Msgr. Borne was found guilty last November of assaulting a teenage boy while the two were on an overnight trip in Griffith, Ontario in 1979. During the trial, the court heard the priest and the boy were sharing a bed when Msgr. Borne began kissing the then 16-year-old before performing oral sex on him.
He met the boy through the boy’s older brother, Msgr. Borne testified during his trial. Although mutual groping occurred between himself and the teenager, Msgr. Borne denied the relations were non-consentual. He also denied Assistant Crown Attorney John Pepper’s suggestion that a sexual encounter with the boy was always Msgr. Borne’s intention.
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