WINNIPEG (CANADA)
CBC News
December 8, 2017
‘Where’s the justice in that?’ says alleged victim
A Catholic priest and convicted pedophile from Winnipeg died this week, just as he was set to appear in court on new allegations.
An online obituary notice from family says Father Omer Desjardins died Dec. 4 at the St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg at the age of 85. He was due in court that same day.
News of Desjardins’ death doesn’t sit well with one of his alleged victims, who had been waiting for a trial to get underway — and for the ordained Oblate priest’s expected guilty plea — since breaking 28 years of silence and telling his story of abuse to police in November 2016.
Joe, who does not want his last name used, previously told CBC News he first met Desjardins in October 1988 when the priest was working as the night caregiver at Credo Home, a Winnipeg group home run by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a Roman Catholic religious community of priests and brothers commonly referred to as the Oblates.
Joe had just turned 15 and didn’t want to live with his mother and her boyfriend. He became a ward of Child and Family Services and was placed in the group home.
Joe says Desjardins soon began coming into his bedroom at night to talk.
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