Former Anglican priest Charles David Griggs was sentenced on Oct. 1 at the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench, Winnipeg, to four years in prison on each of eight counts of indecent assault and four counts of gross indecency. The sentences, to run concurrently, were pronounced by Madame Justice Brenda Keyser and will be served in a federal penitentiary.
The charges stemmed from sexual assaults that took place in the 1960s, ’70s and early ’80s, involving a dozen boys at several parishes in Winnipeg and at the Anglican Island summer camp near Kenora, Ont. Mr. Griggs, who renounced his orders in 1986, was arrested in May, 1999, along with a fellow priest, Rev. James Townley-Smith, who had worked with him. Mr. Townley-Smith was sentenced to 1 years on each of three indecent assault counts.