This article was last updated on April 16, 2022
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The Essex County OPP has recently arrested a Windsor priest and charged him with theft, after the results of a lengthy investigation were made public. The former priest at Ste. Anne Parish in Tecumseh, Father Robert Couture, has been charged with one count of theft over $5,000, about which the Ontario Provincial Police found out through an audit of the parish’s accounts that showed at least $169,000 in irregularities.
Police stated that officials from the parish initially informed them in August 2011, and complained about an alleged internal theft that occurred between 2002 and 2010. The communications director for the Diocese of London, Mark Adkinson, alleged that Couture took a leave of absence from the parish in 2010 for personal reasons. He explained that “whenever there’s a change in the pastor at a parish, we do an audit of the parish.” He added that “it’s usually not that big of a deal, but in this case, auditors found some things that raised some questions for them.”
Adkinson alleged that “this is going to come as a huge shock to the parishioners” at Ste. Anne. He justified that “that’s one of the reasons why we felt that we needed to go to the police with this information, and actually go public with what we’ve done and the steps that we take to ensure that the money people give to their church is safe.” Couture is now scheduled to appear in Court on May 14, 2013.
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