'I have to heal from this,' says woman who accuses Manitoba priest of sexually abusing her in 1970s
Retired priest charged in August with rape will plead not guilty if case goes to trial: lawyer
Constantin Turcoane was charged in August with rape and sexual intercourse with a person under 14. Police said at the time he was accused of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old parishioner at his western Manitoba church in the early 1970s. (Submitted by Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of America)
November 28, 2024
By: Santiago Arias Orozco
Warning: This story deals with allegations of sexual assault and discussion of suicide.
Shelley Trubiak says she suffered in silence for 52 years — but two years ago decided she couldn't do that anymore, after she started having flashbacks of the abuse by a priest she says she suffered while growing up in her small western Manitoba community.
Trubiak, who is now 66, went to the RCMP in 2022, triggering a two-year investigation that led to the issue of an arrest warrant in August for Constantin Turcoane, who was 81 at the time.
The retired priest was charged with rape and sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 14, after Trubiak alleged he sexually assaulted her in the early 1970s, when she was 12 years old and a parishioner at his church in Lennard, Man.
"I've been afraid and scared — all my life I went through this thing," Trubiak, who now lives in Saskatchewan, told CBC News this week. "I have to heal from this, [and] this is the only way I might.
"I just want to tell my story."
None of the allegations against Turcoane have been tested in court. No trial date has been set on his charges.
Turcoane's lawyer told CBC News his client denies the allegations and will plead not guilty if the case proceeds to trial. He wouldn't comment any further because the case is before the courts.
The retired priest, who was living in Regina at the time, turned himself in to police after he was charged in August and has since been released from custody.
Turcoane served as a priest in the early 1970s at the St. Elijah Romanian Orthodox Church in Lennard, a small community near the Saskatchewan border and roughly 300 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.
The Canadian Orthodox History Project website says Turcoane worked with the parish in 1970-71.
Trubiak said she recalls Turcoane moving to Lennard in the winter of 1969, but doesn't remember talking to him outside of mass until the summer of 1970.
She said she and her friends were playing hide-and-seek in the cemetery behind the church when the priest approached her and started talking to her. She alleges he grabbed her chest.
"I didn't even have breasts back then, and he was holding me so tight. He used to smother me," Trubiak said. "I'll never forget this."
Trubiak alleges Turcoane frequently engaged in unwanted touching and other sexual acts at the church and at his home, where she would sometimes babysit his daughter.
"He always used to say, 'Oh, Father loves you, so this is good, this is OK. Father loves you'," she said.
'He took my life, my childhood'
Trubiak says the priest told her to stay silent and keep the alleged sexual abuse between the two of them.
A year later, she said she overheard her mother talking to another member of the church about complaints raised about Turcoane being involved in other alleged abuse. She then decided to tell her mother.
The priest was eventually removed from the church.
To read the rest of the story, go here.
