Freeing Grecco risks opening victims’ wounds, says parole board
Serial child abuser plans to live in Brampton upon his prison release
DONALD GRECCO found little support for his request to be released from prison early.
No professional, including police and parole officers, recommended the former Roman Catholic priest twice convicted of sexually abusing children be released on parole during an April 13 hearing.
Even Grecco’s social worker would not recommend parole “considering the harm to victims that would result from his early release.”
Yet, according to Ontario Parole Board documents obtained by The Standard through a freedom of information request, the parole board decided to set Grecco free six months into his 18-month sentence.
“We recognize that our decision to grant early release will be a painful one for the victims and their families. They have worked hard to close up deep wounds and we appreciate that this decision risks reopening those wounds,” wrote parole board panellists Asad Moten and Katie Osborne.
“However, we must ultimately base our decision on whether (Grecco) poses a risk to the community by re-offending while on parole and whether parole would facilitate this rehabilitation and reintegration into the community.”
The board said Grecco, who is “78 years old and in poor health,” poses little risk of re-offending.
“He lives simply and quietly. There is no evidence to suggest that he has contact with any young people,” the panel report says.
“We recognize that our decision to grant early release will be a painful one for the victims and their families.”
Ontario Parole Board report
Grecco was sentenced last October for sexually abusing three boys in from 1975 to 1982. It was his second conviction for sexually abusing children. His total number of known victims is six.
One of his victims, St. Catharines resident William O’Sullivan, was abused while Greeco was the priest at St. Kevin’s Roman Catholic church in Welland.
O’Sullivan said after the abuse he started acting out, eventually landing in trouble with the law.
At 16, he was sentenced for petty crimes to 18 months at the infamous St. John’s Training School for Boys in Uxbridge — the location of one of the worst sexual abuse scandals in Canadian history.He was sexually abused repeatedly by one of the Christian Brothers running the school.
O’Sullivan reported the crimes to Niagara Regional Police in 2010, who eventually laid charges against Grecco. The former priest pleaded guilty last May to three counts of gross indecency for the sexual abuse.
The parole board’s report said Grecco’s victims “believe that
early release would re-traumatize them as they would not feel justice has been served.” The report also says the impact of Grecco’s crimes has been “significant” on all his victims “reverberating through their lives and into the present day.”
The report said O’Sullivan, the only victim to attend Grecco’s parole hearing, “spoke powerfully to the board about what it’s like to be a survivor of (Grecco’s) abuse.”
According to the report, Grecco, who will be released from prison on April 27, will live in a basement apartment in a Brampton home. Under a court order,
Grecco cannot be within 500 metres of his victims and have no contact by any means with anyone under 16.
The parole board’s report says the owners of the home do not have children, but their grandchildren visit.
“The owners are aware of (Grecco’s) charges and the restrictions and conditions imposed on him,” the report says. “They are willing to contact the police should (Grecco) not comply with any conditions placed on him.”
Grant.LaFleche@niagaradailies.com