CANADA
CBC News
Eric Dejaeger addressed the court today as his four-day sentencing hearing wrapped up in Iqaluit.
“I am really sorry for what I have done,” the 67-year-old former priest told the judge as victims in the court’s gallery cried. “I am sorry to the families and to my own family,”
Dejaeger says he has done extensive counselling and said, “I promise not to re-offend again.”
Dejaeger was convicted last year on 32 counts of child sexual abuse dating back to his time as a priest in Igloolik, Nunavut, between 1978 and 1982.
Justice Kilpatrick extended the hearing yesterday to give Dejaeger’s defence lawyer, Malcolm Kempt, a chance to compile a line-by-line list of recommendations for sentences per charge, as the Crown had done. This morning, Kempt declined to do so, saying such an outline would hurt his client’s case.
Crown prosecutor Doug Curliss gave a rebuttal to Kempt’s final arguments. He said the defence’s guilty pleas were hard won and therefore “insincere.”
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