Phil Jacobs, the former Saanich priest who earlier this year was convicted of touching a young person for a sexual purpose, will be sentenced Friday (July 19) in Supreme Court in Victoria.
The guilty charge stems from a witness testimony regarding tutoring sessions at Jacobs’ house on the grounds of St. Joseph the Worker Parish on Burnside Road West. The witness said he ended up in a position of laying on the couch with his legs over Jacobs’ lap.
During testimony in December, the young man told the court that Jacobs’ right hand would slide up and down the witness’s left thigh over his pants – “he went from my knee to my groin back and forth ... the back of his hand touched my genitals.”
Gropper agreed with the Crown’s assertion that Jacobs’ touching of the victim’s genitals was “deliberate,” and not accidental brushing.
Jacobs was a priest at St. Joseph the Worker Parish in from 1997 to 2002.
He could face a prison sentence of up to 10 years for the guilty count.
Visit vicnews.com on Friday for an update to this story.
– with files from Edward Hill
kslavin@saanichnews.com