Lahey the indomitable

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Oct 09, 2009

When Bishop Raymond Lahey was arrested for possession of kiddie-porn after attracting the suspicion of Canadian Border Patrol agents, Terry Mattingly asked the apposite question, What was the trigger that led to the secondary search of the laptop hard drive of a Catholic bishop? Well, now we know:

Bishop Raymond Lahey avoided eye contact, changed his vocal tone and gave evasive responses when a border agent at Ottawa International Airport questioned him last month about his electronic equipment. … The agent flagged Bishop Lahey for a secondary inspection because of his behaviour and the fact he was a man travelling alone who had visited countries known to be sources of child pornography, says an Ottawa police officer’s application for the warrant on Sept. 23.

Dry the starting tear. It seems that the photos of ungarbed males the agents found on Lahey's laptop -- in their preliminary inspection at the airport -- were of ambiguous age. And here we see the bishop's mandatory Child Protection Training kick in.The same pastoral deftness that led Lahey to explain his sudden resignation as a quest for "much needed time for personal renewal" prompted him to give the agents a reassuring explanation of his appetites:

          "After being cautioned, Lahey admitted that the laptop belonged to him and that he was attracted to males aged 20 to 21," the documents state.

He likes 'em legal, see? We can all breathe easier. The news report goes on to say that law enforcement documents giving the contents of the hard drive "describe eight sexually explicit images involving boys who police believe could be as young as eight. One boy is described as eight to 10 years old with a dark complexion and another is a blond boy believed to be nine to 12, according to the warrant application. Two photos are said to depict oral sex and another two show sexual touching." Doubtless there are cynics out there who will dispute Lahey's sincerity in attesting the rather narrow range of his attractions, but your Uncle Di is persuaded that the defendant's deteriorating eyesight caused him to miscalculate the maturity of his … love interests.

After all, if you can't take a bishop at his word, whom can you trust?