IQALUIT, Nunavut—Prosecutors have asked an Arctic court to sentence a defrocked priest convicted of sexually abusing dozens of Inuit children to 25 years in prison.
“[Eric Dejaeger] appears to have no insight into why he offended and he didn’t stop until he got caught,” said head Crown prosecutor Doug Curliss.
Defence lawyer Malcolm Kempt argued that a 12-year sentence would be enough.
Dejaeger, a former Oblate missionary, is facing sentencing on 32 counts of sexual abuse committed when he was stationed in Igloolik, Nunavut, between 1978 and 1982.
Final sentencing arguments before Justice Robert Kilpatrick were made Wednesday, Jan. 21, after two days of victim impact statements. In deeply emotional testimony, witnesses from Igloolik told how they’ve been left with permanent mental and physical scars.
One man said that the smell of moldy wood takes him back to the mission’s boiler room where Dejaeger raped him. A woman told court she blames Dejaeger for the scars that have been diagnosed on her womb. Others said they still suffer nightmares.
