Bishop Lahey accused of abuse

A Catholic bishop already facing child pornography charges is being accused in a civil lawsuit of sexual abuse by a former resident of the infamous Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John's, CBC News has learned.

In a statement of claim filed in the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador, Todd Boland alleges he was abused by Raymond Lahey, the former head of the diocese of Antigonish in Nova Scotia who resigned last September.

Lahey was a priest in Newfoundland and Labrador before moving to Nova Scotia. According to the claim, Boland was abused several times over four years in the early 1980s while he was at Mount Cashel. The accusations include simulated anal intercourse and fondling.

Boland's lawyer, Greg Stack, described in an interview with CBC News what Boland alleges happened.

"At the time, Monsignor Lahey would take him for an outing, as members of the clergy sometimes did, and that's when the abuse allegedly occurred," said Stack.

Over the following two decades, Lahey rose through the ranks in the Roman Catholic Church, eventually becoming a bishop.

In September, police in Ottawa found pornographic images of boys on Lahey's laptop.

Another man, who was a Mount Cashel resident in the 1950s, said he's not surprised by the new allegations.

James Bryne said that when one charge is laid, victims start speaking up.

"They have to make a lot of hard and difficult choices about coming forward, and in a lot of cases they may have families, young kids and it may take years," said Byrne.

The civil suit against Raymond Lahey also names the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of St John's.

Neither has filed a response in court, and no criminal charges have been laid.

Since stepping down from his post in Nova Scotia, Lahey has remained in Ottawa, where he will stand trial on the pornography charges.