Ralph Rowe Pleads Guilty to 20 Charges of Sexual Offenses

On Monday, May 7, 2007, the trial of a convicted sex offender Ralph Rowe, who was once an Anglican minister, began at the Superior Court of Justice in a Northwestern Ontario city. Rowe plead guilty to 20 charges of sexual offenses involving First Nation boys in Northern Ontario between 1977 and 1987. The counts are 10 counts of sexual assault and 10 counts of indecent assault.

There were actually 24 further counts involving the same victims, but since Rowe's guilty pleas were to one count for each of the 20 victims. The Crown decided that there was no point in getting into a fight over a line in his criminal record. The trial will instead focus on 12 counts involving five different complainants, which was whittled down from a total of 56 charges originally on the indictment. The victims are from First Nation communities such as Muskrat Damn, Wunnumin Lake and Big Trout Lake.

The 20 counts Rowe pled to on Monday involved the fondling of and having boys masturbate him. The age of the boys range from five to fifteen years old. In most incidents, Ralph Rowe was the boys' care giver, and the boys would frequently sleep overnight at his Anglican Church Mission House in the communities. On these nights, he would pick different boys to come and sleep in his bed each night. Rowe was also a Boy Scout Master, and would sexually assault the boys on Boy Scout camping trips.

"They were young kids, they had faith in the church and a belief in Mr. Rowe and it's been a real betrayal of trust," Alvin Fiddler, deputy grand chief for the Nishnawbe Aski Nation told CBC News.

In 1994, Ralph Rowe, who now lives in Surrey, B.C., also faced similar sexual offenses involving 16 aboriginal boys between 1976 and 1982. He faced the charges at the Wunnumin Lake courtroom, and was sentenced to six years of jail time. He only served four and a half years. Superior Court Justice Erwin Statch announced that because of the plea agreement made in 1994, Rowe will not be sentenced to additional prison time for these twenty convictions, only concurrent time on his previous jail sentence. However Statch said for more serious charges, he could impose additional jail time if Ralph Rowe is convicted.

Justice Erwin Stach adjourned the proceedings until this morning, Tuesday, May 8 2007, where the victim impact statements from many of the twenty victims will be read in court.