Elderly priest admits molesting student

OTTAWA - "If you can't trust a priest, who can you trust?" That's what Father Kenneth O'Keefe told the 16-year-old St. Pius X High School student before the boy fell asleep at his teacher's apartment 38 years ago. He awoke to the naked O'Keefe grinding against him from behind and reaching into his underwear to touch him. Now 54, he's "a broken man who lives with the constant memories of a broken boy." That single act of "violence, perversion and power" has "haunted and tainted every aspect of my life." O'Keefe, 81, pleaded guilty Thursday to indecent assault on a male and handed a nine-month conditional sentence, six months of it house arrest at the Toronto priests' residence where he lives.

Judge Lynn Ratushny noted that O'Keefe, who has dementia, has lived an apparently law-abiding life since - although he faces a similar, earlier charge in Gatineau, Que. - and is unlikely to reoffend. But she had harsh words for the elderly priest. "When he succumbed to his pedophilia, he breached the trust of a young man on the cusp of adulthood," Ratushny said. "He sought out safety and guidance and found himself victimized."

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/09/06/elderly-priest-admits-molesting-student-2