A defrocked Catholic priest pleaded guilty Thursday to indecent assaults against seven children decades ago in Nunavut.

Court heard Eric Dejaeger committed the offences between 1978 and 1982 at or near the hamlet of Iglulik. Six of the children were girls and one a boy.

Prosecutor Emma Baasch described each of the assaults in graphic detail in the Nunavut Court of Justice.

In some cases, it began with the priest offering the children candy. Court heard Dejaeger gave a picture of Jesus to one girl to colour before taking her on his lap and assaulting her.

The victims were as young as four at the time the assaults began, Baasch told court.

Of one victim, the prosecutor said, SA国际影视传媒淢r. Dejaeger told her she would go to hell if she said anything.SA国际影视传媒�

Baasch said Dejaeger told another girl SA国际影视传媒渢hat Jesus would not accept her anymore.SA国际影视传媒�

Wails could be heard in a video conference of the court hearing before victim impact statements were read.

announced in June 2023 that Dejaeger had been arrested on a Canada-wide warrant in Kingston, Ont., where he had been living.

He was previously convicted of committing numerous sexual offences while working as an Oblate missionary.

Dejaeger served part of a five-year sentence, beginning in 1990, for sexual crimes against children in Baker Lake, committed between 1982 and 1989.

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

SA国际影视传媒擝y The Canadian Press