Canadian bishop pleads guilty to importing child pornography

Ottawa, Canada, May 4, 2011 / 19:01 pm

Canadian Bishop Raymond J. Lahey was jailed on May 4 immediately after pleading guilty to importing child pornography into the country.

Bishop Lahey, 70, formerly led the Diocese of Antigonish, Nova Scotia and was arrested in 2009 after Ottowa airport workers found him in possession of child pornography as he reentered the country from a trip abroad.

“My client feels, deeply and profoundly, remorse and guilt about what he has done and the offense to which he has pleaded,” the bishop's lawyer Michael Edelson told Canadian paper Metro News.

Edelson informed the court that Bishop Lahey wanted to give up his right to bail. “To signal to the court the sincerity and genuineness of his remorse, he wants to be in jail as of today's date.”

Officers conducting a search in 2009 at the Ottawa Airport found images “of concern” on Bishop Lahey’s laptop and seized it along with other media devices when the he arrived in Canada from England on Sept. 15. When a forensic examination revealed child pornography, a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Further investigation of the bishop's personal computer files and electronic devices found 588 pornographic images involving pubescent boys.

Within weeks, Bishop Lahey had submitted his resignation and by November of 2009, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Bishop Brian Joseph Dunn as bishop of the Diocese of Antigonish.

Bishop Dunn, 56, formerly served as auxiliary bishop of Sault Sainte Marie, Canada.