ST. CATHARINES (ONTARIO, CANADA)
St. Catharines Standard
September 7, 2017
By Grant LaFleche
Convicted sexual predator and ex-Catholic priest Donald Grecco remains a free man, at least for the next seven weeks.
After an emotional, daylong sentencing hearing in St. Catharines, Justice Joseph Nadel decided to defer his final verdict on Grecco — who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing three boys in the 1970s and ’80s — until Oct. 24 so the 77-year-old man can get a colonoscopy.
Nevertheless, Nadel made it clear that Grecco is going to prison and said the former priest “deformed” the lives of his victims through the “grossest form of breach of trust.”
The judge said Grecco turned the parishes he was in charge of into “cesspools of abuse.”
“Today’s headline in the St. Catharines Standard calling you a ‘wolf in priest’s clothing’ is a witty and apt description of your behaviour,” Nadel told Grecco, referring The Standard’s ongoing special report on clergy abuse. “You were supposed to shepherd these boys. Instead, you preyed on them.”
Grecco made a short statement of apology to his victims and the community, calling himself a “fraud” who took advantage of the boys who looked to him for guidance and comfort.
“You came looking for goodness, as you should. What did you get from me? You got evil,” he said, looking across the court directly at one his victims, William O’Sullivan of St. Catharines. “I am truly sorry.”
After the hearing, O’Sullivan said he did not believe Grecco’s apology was sincere, but he needed to hear it nevertheless.
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