Thursday, May 19, 2016

Ottawa diocese repeatedly warned about local clergy's most notorious abuser

Rev. Dale Crampton 1986
The Archdiocese of Ottawa continues to pay for the many sins of Rev. Dale Crampton.

Court documents reveal that the diocese has paid $741,783.44 in compensation to 10 of Crampton’s victims, who were sexually abused by the Catholic priest between 1963 and 1982.

More lawsuits are before the courts. The victims in those cases are seeking $3.7 million.

In total, the diocese now knows of at least 17 people who say they were victimized by the priest as children.

Through interviews and court documents, the Citizen has learned that members of the Ottawa clergy were warned at least seven times about Crampton’s sexual misconduct, beginning in 1965.

In a statement issued Wednesday, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic diocese, Deacon Gilles Ouellette, said it has been engaged in a process of “justice and reconciliation” with victims for many years. “We engage with victims in the forum which they choose, but we do so always in a spirit of reconciliation and repentance,” he said.

Crampton is the most notorious perpetrator in Ottawa’s clergy sexual abuse scandal, a pedophile and alcoholic who has cost the diocese and its insurance companies more money than any other priest.

Crampton killed himself in October 2010, jumping from an Ottawa highrise when he was 74.

At the time of Crampton’s death, the Ottawa Police Service was investigating sex abuse allegations made against him by five new complainants.

One of Crampton’s oldest friends, Rev. Barry McGrory, himself a convicted sex abuser, told the Citizen that the then-retired priest could not bear the prospect of another trial.

“What an awful death he had,” said McGrory. “Apparently old stuff came up and he was going to be recharged. He couldn’t face it.”  (more...)


Background:

And, an email exchange recounted on Silvia's Site:

An eloquent apologist

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