How Could You? Hall of Shame-Canada-John Archibald Connolly

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Nova Scotia, Canada, foster parent John Archibald Connolly, 84, was sentenced to “three years in prison for molesting four of the many foster children he and his wife took into their home.

John Archibald Connolly of Guysborough Intervale was found guilty of five sex-related charges at trial in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in February.

Connolly was sentenced June 27 in Guysborough. Justice Gerald Moir’s written decision was released Friday.

Moir said Connolly was older than any of the offenders in the case law he considered.

“His age and health make specific deterrence unnecessary,” the judge said. “However, I have to consider what he did in the context of the general society.

“Foster children have much to overcome, without being molested. To deliberately harm a vulnerable foster child violates the trust obligation a foster parent owes to the child and to society.”

Connolly and his wife provided foster children with what appeared to be an excellent place to live for several decades, Moir said. But four women complained to police many years later that Connolly had abused them as children.

The first girl to be molested was in the home from 1956 to 1965. She was repeatedly raped until she was old enough to better fend for herself, the judge said.

The next two victims were in the residence from the late 1960s until the mid-1970s. The fourth victim arrived at the home as a toddler and was there until 1980. The judge said those three girls endured “degrading sexual assaults.”

“As the household grew and became more crowded, Mr. Connolly desisted from the extreme assaults the first girl underwent because of the risk of detection,” Moir said.

Connolly suffers from numerous physical problems, the court heard. He had an aneurysm and open heart surgery about seven years ago. Shortly after that, he was operated on for bowel cancer and had a permanent colostomy.

He also has a pacemaker and suffers from small strokes. He’s on medication for heart disease, strokes, prostate problems, cardiovascular difficulties and depression caused by the criminal case.

The defence recommended an 18-month conditional sentence featuring house arrest. The Crown said the appropriate punishment would be four to six years in a penitentiary.

Moir gave Connolly three years in prison on each count, to be served concurrently.

“It would be much longer if it had not been for his health, his age and his loss of standing in a small rural community,” the judge said.

He said the victims are strong adults who, after years of living with a secret, may now be free to move on.

“But there are many others not strong enough to endure and overcome what they have suffered,” Moir said of victims of sex abuse.

“I have no choice but to keep in mind the next foster parent who is tempted to abuse their foster child. Such a foster parent has to know that, sooner or later, they will be called to account.

“If they choose as Mr. Connolly did, there is no limit on when they will be exposed to severe punishment.”

The judge ordered Connolly to provide a sample of his DNA for a national databank and to register as a sex offender after he gets out of prison.”

84-year-old man gets prison time for molesting foster children

[Herald News 7/6/13 by Steve Bruce]

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