BRANDON (CANADA)
The Brandon Sun [Brandon, Manitoba, CA]
December 4, 2025
By Skye Anderson
Trial dates have been set for a former priest who allegedly sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl in his congregation in 1970.
Constantin Turcoane’s matter appeared in Brandon’s Court of King’s Bench on Tuesday, when his trial dates were set for November 2026.
The 81-year-old used to run the St. Elijah Romanian Orthodox Church in a small Westman community that sits within what is now the RM of Riding Mountain West. The church is now a part of the St. Elijah Romanian Orthodox Pioneer Museum, which is roughly 210 kilometres from Brandon.
In March 2022, a woman in her 60s reported that the priest had sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions over a period of two years while she was a parishioner at the church, RCMP said in a news release in August last year.
The woman was 11 and 12 when the alleged sexual assaults took place, police said.
The Mounties said they took statements from multiple people, searched historic church records and communicated with church-related organizations for further information.
A warrant was issued for Turcoane’s arrest for the charges of rape and sexual intercourse with a female under the age of 14, and Turcoane surrendered to the Russell RCMP detachment in June 2024.
The Criminal Code no longer refers to the offences as rape and sexual intercourse with a female under the age of 14, but the charges were based on the wording of the federal law when the alleged sexual assaults took place.