CANADA
CTV
Chinta Puxley, The Canadian Press
Published Thursday, February 5, 2015
WINNIPEG — A former archbishop who sexually assaulted an altar boy in the 1980s has lost his appeal and is starting his eight-month sentence behind bars.
The Manitoba Court of Appeal said Thursday it agrees with the conviction of Seraphim Storheim and the sentence a lower court imposed. The high court said it wasn’t convinced trial Judge Christopher Mainella — who now sits on the Court of Appeal — made a mistake when he decided Storheim’s evidence wasn’t believable.
“It cannot be said that the trial judge applied a different level of scrutiny to the evidence of the accused,” the judges wrote. “A review of the decision reveals that the trial judge … did not hold the accused’s evidence to a higher standard than that of the Crown witnesses.”
Earlier this year a judge convicted Seraphim Storheim of sexually assaulting an altar boy who lived with him in 1985.
The judges also ruled the sentence fit the crime.
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