Ex-Saanich priest hit with four sex charges

Tag: canada

By Katie DeRosa, With files from Ian Shelton, TimesColonist.com

A Catholic priest from the U.S. who spent six years working in Sooke and Saanich has been charged with four sex offences in relation to three Greater Victoria children under the age of 14.

Father Philip Jacobs, 60, was arrested by Canada Border Services Agency personnel on Wednesday as he arrived at Victoria airport from San Francisco. He appeared in court yesterday and was released on a $25,000 surety.


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Jacobs is charged with one count of sexual assault, two counts of sexual interference and one count of sexual exploitation. The alleged offences occurred between Sept. 1, 1996, and June 30, 2001, according to court documents. They relate to while Jacobs was a priest in the Catholic Diocese of Victoria, Saanich police say.

The identities of the alleged victims are protected by court order. Police would not release the age or sex of the victims, other than to say they were all under 14 at the time of the alleged offences.

Jacobs served as parish priest at St. Joseph the Worker Church on West Burnside Road in Saanich from 1998 to 2002. Prior to that, he spent two years serving the St. Rose of Lima congregation in Sooke.

Jacobs resigned from his position at St. Joseph in April 2002 after information was made public that he was dismissed from a church in Columbus, Ohio, in the mid-1990s amid allegations of misconduct.

Saanich police began investigating Jacobs in 2002, but there was insufficient evidence to proceed with a charge, spokesman Const. Dean Jantzen said yesterday at a press conference.

However, in 2009, while Jacobs was living abroad, Saanich police received complaints against him that led to an investigation into his conduct as a priest at St. Joseph's, Jantzen said. The investigation led to charges being approved on July 9, and a Canada-wide warrant was issued for Jacobs's arrest.

Jantzen would not say whether any of the victims who sparked the 2009 investigation also complained in 2002.

At the time of Jacobs's resignation in 2002, the then-bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Victoria, Raymond Roussin, indicated he had learned about the Ohio allegations in 2000. He said the diocese kept Jacobs on as a priest because Jacobs had undergone two psychiatric assessments -- one following his dismissal in Ohio and one by the B.C. Ministry of Children and Family Development -- indicating he wasn't a risk.

Roussin said the diocese also arranged for Jacobs to be monitored by two senior priests and two lay members of the church, see a psychiatrist regularly, and not to be alone with individual children.

Yesterday, Bishop Richard Gagnon said the diocese tightened its screening process for priests in 2005, and "under today's standards, Jacobs would not have been hired by the diocese."

Gagnon admitted the diocese "could have done more" for parishioners.

He said he was "shocked" when Saanich police informed him of the charges on Thursday. "I am truly sorry for any harm caused by this situation and the impact it has on all those affected. We truly understand the severity of sexual abuse and its effect on people's lives."

He said counselling is being provided to those who need it.

Gagnon said that Jacobs is still a priest but is holding a "non-church occupation" in Europe, and has made frequent visits to Victoria since 2002.

Saanich police are urging anyone with information on the case to come forward.

kderosa@tc.canwest.com
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