WINNIPEG – A Manitoba judge is expected to decide next week whether testimony from two brothers who allege they were sexually abused by an Orthodox priest should be considered jointly.
The brothers have testified they were abused in separate incidents during the summer of 1985, when they were pre-teens and lived and worked with Seraphim Storheim.
The Crown is asking the court to admit the evidence of each brother in the other’s case.
Defence lawyer Jeff Gindin opposes the move, saying it would be prejudicial to use one man’s testimony to try to bolster the other’s allegation.
Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Christopher Mainella has indicated he might decide by next week whether to separate the cases, and the defence says it might then seek to have one of the cases dismissed due to lack of evidence.
The accused had worked as a parish priest in Alberta, North Carolina and London, Ont., and later became archbishop of the Orthodox Church in America.
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