Five victims who were molested by a Catholic priest have filed a civil suit seeking $1.7 million in compensation from the Catholic Archdiocese of Sherbrooke and Abbé Daniel Pichette, who was found guilty of assaulting them when they were children.

Now in his early eighties, the Catholic priest plead guilty in November 2006 to assaulting eight youths during the 1950s and 1970s when he was the chaplain at Camp Chez Grand Maman, a youth camp on University Boulevard in Rock Forest that has long since closed. At least one assault occurred at the Val du Lac youth detention centre.
Pichette had been charged with two dozen counts of sexual assault, gross indecency, indecent assault and sodomy. Instead, he pleaded guilty Thursday to attacks on five boys and three girls.
In December 2006, the retired priest was sentenced to 21 months in prison for sexual interference on eight minors.
While the archdiocese acknowledges the assaults occurred, it refutes all responsibility for the crimes.

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By Rita Legault
Sherbrooke