CANADA
Metro News

By Steve Lambert
The Canadian Press

WINNIPEG – A former Orthodox priest facing possible jail time for molesting an altar boy expressed empathy Wednesday toward his victim.

“Having read the victim impact statement, I felt extreme sadness and pain in my heart that he was feeling those things,” Seraphim Kenneth Storheim said in a brief address at the end of his sentencing hearing.

Storheim also said he will pray for the victim “even more” from now on.

The 68-year-old former cleric was dressed in simple black clothing that contrasted with his long white beard. He sat quietly throughout the hearing before making his statement.

The Crown requested a 12-month jail sentence for Storheim, who was convicted in January of one count of sexual assault on a boy who was living and working with him in Winnipeg in 1985. The boy had been sent to live…