Canadian Bishop Resigns over Porn found on Computer

Canadian bishop arrested on Charges of Possessing Child Pornography

10/2/2009
Catholic News Agency (www.catholicnewsagency.com)

Bishop Raymond Lahey of the Diocese of Antigonish, Nova Scotia resigned and turned himself into police.


Bishop Raymond Lahey of the Diocese of Antigonish, Nova Scotia as he turned himself into Police.
OTTAWA, Canada (CNA) - Bishop Raymond Lahey of the Diocese of Antigonish, Nova Scotia resigned and turned himself into police after being charged with possessing and importing child pornography. The accusations have particular significance because of his role in addressing sexual abuse accusations against his diocese’s priests.

Officers conducting a search at the Ottawa Airport found images “of concern” on Bishop Lahey’s laptop and seized it along with other media devices when the 69-year-old prelate reentered Canada on Sept. 15. When a forensic examination revealed child pornography, files were charged against the bishop and a warrant was issued for his arrest last Friday, the Globe and Mail reports.

The bishop turned himself in to Ottawa police on Thursday.

On Saturday, September 26, Archbishop of Halifax Anthony Mancini was named apostolic administrator of Antigonish, according to the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB).

The CCCB reported that Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of the accused bishop, who asked to leave office for “personal reasons.”

“I have already left the diocese to take some much-needed time for personal renewal. I simply ask for your prayers, as I assure you of my continued prayers for you all,” the bishop wrote in a letter to his diocese.

According to the Globe and Mail, Diocese of Antigonish spokesman Fr. Paul Abbass said there had been “a ton of speculation” about the reasons for the bishop’s resignation, with many believing it was due to stress or his health.

“We know the reason now and now we have to deal with that,” he remarked.

He described the former bishop as warm, respectful and “very pastoral.” In the priest’s view, Bishop Lahey was “absolutely committed” to resolving allegations of clerical sexual abuse, but the new charges were “pretty devastating” in light of the recent sexual abuse settlement.

In August the diocese reached a $15 million class-action settlement with known and alleged former child victims of sexual abuse by its priests dating back to 1950.

The Globe and Mail reports that Bishop Lahey, who was not implicated in the allegations, apologized to those abuse victims.

“Sexual abuse, indeed any abuse, is wrong. It is a crime and it is a serious sin in the eyes of God,” he had told a press conference. “I want to assure you that for some time our diocese, like others throughout Canada, have been taking steps to protect children and youth.”

A Wednesday press release from the Archdiocese of Halifax reported that Archbishop Mancini learned of the charges against Bishop Lahey through the news media.

“I am shocked and saddened by this devastating news. For the priests and people of Antigonish Diocese, this is a terrible moment,” the archbishop said.

Archbishop Mancini told CTV News that he assumed that Pope Benedict knew “the gravity of the matter” when he accepted the bishop’s resignation.

Bishop Lahey had been bishop of Antigonish since June 2003. Previously, he had been Bishop of St. George’s, Newfoundland and Labrador since July 1986.

According to the CCCB, the Diocese of Antigonish has a Catholic population of 129,730 in 118 parishes and missions. They are served by 114 diocesan priests, three religious priests, one permanent deacon and 272 religious sisters



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We want to urge in the light of the following Associated Press statement to take a serious view of the bishop's actions, until we are fully certain both legally or through his confessions, that he actually engaged in this hideous acts. If the AP investigation is anything to go by, innocent persons can be so easily framed and entered into legal troubles in a way that is damaging and totally embarrassing to individuals. This is no apologia for the bishop. Please, use your discernment. On our part, we would not like to be seen to be intentionally doing damage to the church and her institutions, whom we are a part, except if in a controvertible way we are certain of our facts and data. Thanks. Moderator.
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AP IMPACT: Framed for child porn — by a PC virus


By JORDAN ROBERTSON, AP Technology Writer - Sun Nov 8, 2009 12:17PM EST

Of all the sinister things that Internet viruses do, this might be the worst: They can make you an unsuspecting collector of child pornography.

Heinous pictures and videos can be deposited on computers by viruses — the malicious programs better known for swiping your credit card numbers. In this twist, it's your reputation that's stolen.

Pedophiles can exploit virus-infected PCs to remotely store and view their stash without fear they'll get caught. Pranksters or someone trying to frame you can tap viruses to make it appear that you surf illegal Web sites.

Whatever the motivation, you get child porn on your computer — and might not realize it until police knock at your door.

An Associated Press investigation found cases in which innocent people have been branded as pedophiles after their co-workers or loved ones stumbled upon child porn placed on a PC through a virus. It can cost victims hundreds of thousands of dollars to prove their innocence.

Their situations are complicated by the fact that actual pedophiles often blame viruses — a defense rightfully viewed with skepticism by law enforcement.

"It's an example of the old `dog ate my homework' excuse," says Phil Malone, director of the Cyberlaw Clinic at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. "The problem is, sometimes the dog does eat your homework."

The AP's investigation included interviewing people who had been found with child porn on their computers. The AP reviewed court records and spoke to prosecutors, police and computer examiners.

One case involved Michael Fiola, a former investigator with the Massachusetts agency that oversees workers' compensation.

In 2007, Fiola's bosses became suspicious after the Internet bill for his state-issued laptop showed that he used 4 1/2 times more data than his colleagues. A technician found child porn in the PC folder that stores images viewed online.

Fiola was fired and charged with possession of child pornography, which carries up to five years in prison. He endured death threats, his car tires were slashed and he was shunned by friends.

Fiola and his wife fought the case, spending $250,000 on legal fees. They liquidated their savings, took a second mortgage and sold their car.

An inspection for his defense revealed the laptop was severely infected. It was programmed to visit as many as 40 child porn sites per minute — an inhuman feat. While Fiola and his wife were out to dinner one night, someone logged on to the computer and porn flowed in for an hour and a half.

Prosecutors performed another test and confirmed the defense findings. The charge was dropped — 11 months after it was filed.

The Fiolas say they have health problems from the stress of the case. They say they've talked to dozens of lawyers but can't get one to sue the state, because of a cap on the amount they can recover.

"It ruined my life, my wife's life and my family's life," he says.

The Massachusetts attorney general's office, which charged Fiola, declined interview requests.

At any moment, about 20 million of the estimated 1 billion Internet-connected PCs worldwide are infected with viruses that could give hackers full control, according to security software maker F-Secure Corp. Computers often get infected when people open e-mail attachments from unknown sources or visit a malicious Web page.

Pedophiles can tap viruses in several ways. The simplest is to force someone else's computer to surf child porn sites, collecting images along the way. Or a computer can be made into a warehouse for pictures and videos that can be viewed remotely when the PC is online.

"They're kind of like locusts that descend on a cornfield: They eat up everything in sight and they move on to the next cornfield," says Eric Goldman, academic director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University. Goldman has represented Web companies that discovered child pornographers were abusing their legitimate services.

But pedophiles need not be involved: Child porn can land on a computer in a sick prank or an attempt to frame the PC's owner.

In the first publicly known cases of individuals being victimized, two men in the United Kingdom were cleared in 2003 after viruses were shown to have been responsible for the child porn on their PCs.

In one case, an infected e-mail or pop-up ad poisoned a defense contractor's PC and downloaded the offensive pictures.

In the other, a virus changed the home page on a man's Web browser to display child porn, a discovery made by his 7-year-old daughter. The man spent more than a week in jail and three months in a halfway house, and lost custody of his daughter.

Chris Watts, a computer examiner in Britain, says he helped clear a hotel manager whose co-workers found child porn on the PC they shared with him.

Watts found that while surfing the Internet for ways to play computer games without paying for them, the manager had visited a site for pirated software. It redirected visitors to child porn sites if they were inactive for a certain period.

In all these cases, the central evidence wasn't in dispute: Pornography was on a computer. But proving how it got there was difficult.

Tami Loehrs, who inspected Fiola's computer, recalls a case in Arizona in which a computer was so "extensively infected" that it would be "virtually impossible" to prove what an indictment alleged: that a 16-year-old who used the PC had uploaded child pornography to a Yahoo group.

Prosecutors dropped the charge and let the boy plead guilty to a separate crime that kept him out of jail, though they say they did it only because of his age and lack of a criminal record.

Many prosecutors say blaming a computer virus for child porn is a new version of an old ploy.

"We call it the SODDI defense: Some Other Dude Did It," says James Anderson, a federal prosecutor in Wyoming.

However, forensic examiners say it would be hard for a pedophile to get away with his crime by using a bogus virus defense.

"I personally would feel more comfortable investing my retirement in the lottery before trying to defend myself with that," says forensics specialist Jeff Fischbach.