Ex-Priest Faces Charges in Canada for Sexually Molesting Children in Haiti

The international community has evidently concluded that there is no justice in Haiti. Sexual predators who have been operating with impunity in Haiti are being extradited to their countries of origin to face criminal charges. Douglas Perlitz was extradited to the US. Now John Duarte, a priest who has reportedly been abusing young boys in Port-au-Prince hotels for years--is to be extradited to Canada from the Dominican Republic. The Windsor Star has more on the story.
___________________________________
Ex-Windsor priest John Duarte arrested for alleged child sex abuse in Haiti
By Don Lajoie, The Windsor Star | October 21, 2009

Joao Jose Correira Duarte, a former Windsor priest, is now facing extradition to Canada, where he's expected to face 12 charges in the sexual abuse of Haitian youths, age 12 to 17, the Immigration Office and National Drug Control Directorate said in a statement sent to Canwest News Service. Photograph by: Handout, CNS

A former local priest, who founded a mission to aid the poor in Haiti, has been arrested in the Dominican Republic and is awaiting extradition to Canada to face charges of sexually abusing teenage Haitian boys.

John Duarte, 43, former leader of the Windsor-based Hearts Together For Haiti, was picked up Tuesday in the city of Puerto Plata by Dominican authorities on a warrant issued in Canada, according to a statement released by the Dominican Immigration Office and National Drug Control Directorate.

It is alleged Duarte had been engaging in sexual relations with a group of adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 in Port-au-Prince.

He faces 12 charges of sexual abuse.

Duarte is accused of seeking sexual encounters with the youths in the city’s hotel rooms in exchange for favours, such as buying them clothes or paying for better lodging for the victims’ families in the sprawling slums of the Haitian capital.

The statement said Duarte is being held in a Dominican prison where he will await the trip back to Canada.

Duarte had worked as a missionary off and on in Haiti since the 1990s, while also serving as a parish priest in Windsor and Essex County — most recently at Our Lady of Perpetual Help and previously at St. Michael’s Church in Leamington.

It took the Dominican authorities four weeks to apprehend Duarte after receiving a diplomatic note from the Canadian Embassy Sept. 28. The arrest warrant was signed by a Windsor justice of the peace. The embassy was informed of the arrest Wednesday.

Read the whole story at the Windsor Star.