MONTREAL, March 25, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) — A former communications director for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and deacon in the Archdiocese of Montreal has been sentenced to 2 years less a day in jail for producing and distributing child pornography.
William Kokesch was arrested in December 2012 after police searched his home in Pointe Claire and his office at the parish where he served as a deacon. They seized over 2,000 child pornography images.
Kokesch, now 68, worked for the CCCB from 1995 to 2005 and helped coordinate Canadian participation at World Youth Day in 1997, 2000, 2002, and 2005.
At the time of his arrest, he was serving as a deacon at St. Edmund of Canterbury Church in Beaconsfield on Montreal’s West Island.
During his tenure with the CCCB communications service, Kokesch was responsible for promulgating the Canadian bishops' response to the sex abuse scandal of the early 2000s.
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Following his arrest the Archdiocese of Montreal issued a statement saying Kokesch had immediately been removed from ministerial and pastoral duties.
“Child pornography is an affront to human dignity and our first concern is with the victims,” the archdiocese stated. “We extend our prayers to those involved and we invite people to trust in the judicial process, to respect it and to await the conclusions.”
At the March 24 sentencing, Kokesch's lawyer, Jeffrey Boro, told media that his client had a troubled childhood, which “sometimes manifests itself in acts such as the one that Mr. Kokesch pleaded guilty to,” which involved “importing pictures and videos into his computer and sending them to other people.”
Without elaborating on Kokesch's problems as a youth, Boro added that his client has had “27 months of therapy sessions, realizing that he's not alone, that there are many other people – many more than we know – out there who have the same problem.”
The convicted child porn user read a prepared statement in court in which he apologized for his actions and asked for forgiveness.