A 2009 file photo of Bishop Raymond Lahey, who is shown leaving an RCMP office in Rogersville, N.B.PAUL DARROW
A bishop facing child-pornography charges in Ontario is being accused in a lawsuit of sexually abusing a former resident of Mount Cashel orphanage in St. John's.
A statement of claim filed in the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador accuses Raymond Lahey of simulated anal intercourse and fondling.
The civil lawsuit has been filed by a man who says he was a young boy in 1982 when he first met Bishop Lahey, who was a pastoral priest, at the Mount Cashel orphanage.
None of the allegations have been proven in court, and a lawyer representing Bishop Lahey on child-pornography charges declined comment through his office.
In the suit, it is alleged that Bishop Lahey abused the boy on fishing trips and other outings over a period of four years.
Bishop Lahey resigned as head of the Catholic diocese of Antigonish, N.S., after he was charged in September with possession of child pornography after border agents examined his laptop at the Ottawa airport.
Bishop Lahey – who retains the title despite stepping down – and the Catholic Archdiocese of St. John's are named as defendants in the suit, which seeks damages for pain and mental suffering.
Statements of defence have not been submitted and a spokesman for the archdiocese could not be reached for comment.