Catholic priest Father Ronald Léger removed from duties after sex assault plea
CBC News | Posted: July 16, 2015 8:43 PM | Last Updated: July 17, 2015
Léger pleaded guilty to 3 sex assault charges, 1 charge of sexual interference on July 13
A former Winnipeg priest has been removed from his duties in the Catholic Archdiocese of St. Boniface after he pleaded guilty to sex assault earlier this week.
Ronald Léger, the former head of Holy Family Parish and founder of Teen Stop Jeunesse, pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual assault and one count of sexual interference on July 13.
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The Archdiocese of St. Boniface stripped Ronald Léger of his duties on Thursday.
"You are definitively no longer authorized to exercise a public ministry in our Archdiocese of St. Boniface," Albert LeGatt, the Archbishop of St. Boniface, said in a news release.
The charges brought against the 77-year-old relate back to a series of incidents that occurred between 1984 and 2004. The interference charge was levelled against Léger because one of the victims was under the age of 16.
Léger is expected to be sentenced early next week. His name will be added to the national sex offender registry.
Léger was arrested earlier in 2014 after three males age nine to 18 came forward. Two said they were attacked in the 1980s, while the third occurred between 2002 and 2004.
He remains free on bail.
The Archdiocese is holding a meeting Monday evening at the Holy Family Parish to answer questions about the case.
Corrections:
- Father Ronald Léger was not defrocked, as an earlier version of this story said; he was relieved of his duties by the Archdiocese of St. Boniface. December 1, 2016 7:25 PM