CANADA
Toronto Sun

JOSEE HAMELIN, QMI AGENCY

FIRST POSTED: SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 08, 2015

SAINT-HYACINTHE, Que. – A former priest accused of forcibly fondling and engaging in oral sex with several boys between 1976 and 1982 says he did nothing wrong.

Rejean Trudel, 71, was a deputy director of Patro Lokal, a shelter for 12- to 17-year-old boys with family problems in Saint-Hyacinthe, a Quebec town about 60 km east of Montreal.

The shelter was run by the Marist Brothers, an offshoot of the Catholic Church dedicated to education. He was arrested in November after five former residents of the shelter filed complaints.

Now, he’s come forward to deny any wrongdoing.

“The young people in our care were like our own children,” he said.