House arrest for priest guilty of sex crimes in Windsor, Saskatoon

An Ontario Court Justice ruled William Marshall will serve six months house arrest  in relation to two new sexual assault charges.

Marshall is a retired priest and teacher who was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually abusing 16 boys and one girl at schools in Toronto, Sudbury and Windsor.

He pleaded guilty to two additional counts of indecent assault stemming from groping incidents with two boys in Saskatoon in 1959 and 1961.

He was released from his previous conviction last October, having served two-thirds of his sentence.

Several demonstrators, including two victims of Marshall, protested outside the Windsor courthouse this morning demanding stiffer sentences for priests who abuse children.

These child molesters need to be dealt with harshly by the courts, said victim Patrick McMahon.

"He received 16 months in jail for 17 convictions ... these penalties for pedophiles are ridiculous," McMahon said. "I fully expect that he won't serve any additional time and that's unacceptable to our society or our city.

One man who said he was abused at 13 stood up in the court room and shouted in protest after defense lawyer Andrew Brady told the judge Marshal need not go back to jail.

That man was ejected from the courtroom.

Marshall himself stood up and apologized for his actions.

"It never crossed my mind that I was hurting anyone else ... I throw myself at the mercy of the court," he said.

The crown asked for a nine to 10 month jail term. Justice Lloyd Dean decided to keep Marshall confined to Cardinal Flahiff Basilian Centre where he now lives on parole

Survival Network of those Abused by Priests member Brenda Brunelle said she's less than receptive to Marshall's plea.

"We hope that the court has mercy on these children that Father Marshall molested over his five decades as a priest," she said.