Disgraced Catholic bishop Raymond Lahey is to have a sentencing hearing for his child-pornography conviction on June 24.
The
date — for submissions on how long a sentence he should serve, not
likely for a sentence to be imposed — was set by Crown and defence
lawyers and a judge in Ottawa court last Thursday morning.
Lahey, then the
bishop of Antigonish in Nova Scotia, was caught with child pornography
on his laptop computer when he was passing through the Ottawa airport in
summer 2009 after a trip abroad.
He pleaded guilty on May 4
to possessing child pornography for the purpose of importation and
voluntarily went to jail then, since the crime carries a mandatory jail
sentence and he chose to start serving that time immediately.
He retains
his rank in the Catholic Church until a canonical disciplinary process
concludes.
Lahey had been a central figure in settling a
lawsuit against his diocese over the sexual abuse of children by priests
in Nova Scotia.
The diocese agreed to pay $15 million.
The
material he was caught with in Ottawa, about five weeks later, included
photographs and stories featuring the humiliation and degradation of
young boys.