Former priest pleads guilty to indecent assaults of children in Nunavut

IGLOOIT — A defrocked Catholic priest pleaded guilty Thursday to indecent assaults on seven children in Nunavut over decades.

The court heard that Eric Degger committed the crimes between 1978 and 1982 in or around Iglooit. Six of the victims were girls and one was a boy.

Prosecutor Emma Bash gave graphic details of each of the assaults in the Nunavut Court of Justice.

In some cases, the assaults began with the priest offering the children candy. The court heard that Degger gave one of the girls a picture of Jesus Christ to color, then sat her on his lap and assaulted her.

Bash told the court that the victims were just four years old when the assaults began.

“Mr. Degger told her if she said anything she would go to hell,” the prosecutor said of one of the victims.

Bash added that Degger told another girl, “Jesus won’t accept her anymore.”

Before victim impact statements were read, sobs could be heard from the court’s video conference.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) announced in June 2023 that Degger had been arrested on a Canada-wide warrant in Kingston, Ontario, where he lived.

He had previously been convicted of multiple sex crimes while serving as an Oblate missionary.

Degger served part of a five-year sentence from 1990 for sex crimes against children in Baker Lake, Nunavut, that occurred between 1982 and 1989.

In 2015, he was sentenced to 19 years in prison for 32 crimes against Inuit children and some adults in Iglooik between 1978 and 1982.

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