Sex abuse victim calls for public inquiry

MacIntosh was convicted on Monday of four counts of gross indecency and indecent assault involving boys in the 1970s.

One of the complainants, who can only be identified as W.R., said it had been a long 40 years since the abuse happened.

"It took a long time but it feels good," W.R. told reporters after the verdict was read.

The RCMP investigation against MacIntosh began in 1995 in Port Hawkesbury and the first charge against him was laid that year. By then, more than 15 years had passed since the abuse took place and MacIntosh had left Canada to set up a business and residence in India.

MacIntosh was taken into custody in a New Delhi suburb in 2007 — more than a decade after the investigation began — and extradited to Canada later that year.

On Monday, W.R. questioned why it took so long to bring MacIntosh to justice.

"A public inquiry needs to be done. This is 40 years in the making and I hold the provincial and the federal governments both accountable for this, and the Justice Department," he said.

"We're getting ready to do an online site where people can go on and to sign our petition form."

W.R. said the federal government needs to explain why it renewed MacIntosh's passport twice during his 13 years in India, while he was a wanted man. W.R. also wants the national sex offender registry to be public in Canada, as it is in the U.S.

"It's the public that needs to know this because if you have a pedophile living next door to you, you have a right as a Canadian citizen to know if there's a pedophile living next door to you," he said.

Another victim, identified as R.M., said he intends to read a victim impact statement during MacIntosh's sentencing on Feb. 11.

He said he wants the court to understand the "collateral damage" caused by the abuse.

"I remember in my high school, missing a grade, but then turning myself around and I remember being told, 'You are not going to university.' What bothered me is what could I have become," said R.M.

"The collateral damage to my family, my children. Was I absent for them?"

In addition to Monday's convictions, MacIntosh was convicted in July of 13 counts of indecent assault and gross indecency involving two separate complainants. He was sentenced to four years in prison but was given credit for his two years in remand, leaving two years less a day to serve.

MacIntosh is free on bail while he appeals those convictions.