Raymond Lahey is accused of fondling 10-year-old boy
Raymond Lahey, the Nova Scotia bishop who was arrested last year on child pornography charges, is now accused of sexually abusing a 10-year-old boy. According to a statement of claim filed in the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador, the victim, Todd Boland, says he was repeatedly fondled over his clothes in the mid-1980s, while Lahey was the vicar-general of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John’s. Greg Stack, Boland’s lawyer, said the child porn charges spurred his client to come forward. “An awful lot of victims of sexual abuse just try to bury it in their subconscious,” Stack said. “Any priest or figure like that is a godlike figure, I suppose, having been brought up Roman Catholic.” The lawsuit comes as the Vatican continues to be hammered by new revelations of clergy abuse—and systemic cover-up.