RCMP arrest ex-priest involved in historical sexual assault in early 70s

A former priest has been charged with a historical sexual assault in Manitoba dating back to the early 1970s.

Back in March of 2022, Russell RCMP received a report of a historic sexual assault. A woman in her 60s reported to police that she had been sexually assaulted over a two-year period by the priest when she was a parishioner at St. Elijah Romanian Orthodox Church in Lennard, Manitoba.

At the time, she was 11 and 12-years-old. On June 13, police arrested 81-year-old Constantin Turcoane, after he turned himself into police, following a warrant for his arrest on charges of rape and sexual intercourse under 14.

“It’s really sad to hear that there is yet another priest that has been charged,” said Irene Deschenes, the president of Outrage Canada.

Back in March of 2023, The Jesuits of Canada, a religious order of the Catholic Church, released a list of 27 priests and brothers who they claimed were “credibly accused” of sexually abusing minors since the 1950s.

In that same month, retired Catholic priest Arthur Masse was acquitted of indecent assault on an Indigenous girl at Fort Alexander Residential School.

“They talk about thousands of thousands of victims that priests have left in their wake. It’s disturbing to know that there are so many. The church has the power and the authority to do something about it and to clean up their act and just to take care of the victims and the survivors,” said Deschenes.

Deschenes says it’s extremely hard for survivors to come forward.

“For a lot of survivors, their knee-jerk reaction is to go to the very institution that harmed them, so a lot of survivors do go to the church and the church pretty much calls them liars. That really urges them from doing anything further beyond that. A lot of survivors do take decades to come forward.”

Police believe there are other survivors and ask them to call the Russell RCMP Detachment.