Ex-priest guilty of sex crimes

Inuvik, North West Territories, Canada -

A former Manitoba priest has been convicted of sex crimes with students at an Inuvik residential school in the early '60s. Martin Houston, 67, pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of buggery and two counts of indecent assault involving students under his charge.

The assaults took place between August 1960 and June 1962 when he was a dorm supervisor at Grollier Hall, a residential school run by the Roman Catholic church in Inuvik.

"You soiled the lives of innocent boys," said Justice Arthur Lutz, who gave Houston a suspended sentence and put him on three years probation.

The sentence was a joint recommendation of Crown attorney Noel Sinclair and defence lawyer Richard Wolson.

This is the second time Houston has been sentenced for sexual abuse at Grollier Hall. In 1962, he pleaded guilty to five counts of buggery and five counts of gross indecency.

Read the article at Winnipeg Sun dated August 19, 2004

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