Article content continued

Despite all that paperwork, defence lawyer Patrick Ducharme said he believes it came down to credibility.

“I believe that juries listen to evidence and decide issues of credibility and decide issues of what parts of the evidence they accept or don’t accept,” said Ducharme. “I’m not so sure they spend all their time trying to be accountants or semi-accountants on their own. I don’t know exactly what they considered but I think this was a case about credibility.”

The former pastor remains free until his sentencing hearing, which hasn’t been scheduled yet. He left the courthouse without talking to reporters.

“He’s very disappointed,” said Ducharme. “It’s definitely a serious matter for him. It’s life-altering because he loves to teach and loves what he did with the church. All those things will probably change. That’s what happens when you have a result like this.”

Photo by Tyler Brownbridge / Windsor Star

He had yet to discuss a possible appeal with his client but added that Couture still maintains he is innocent.

“When you work hard on a case and you deliver an argument to the jury, you hope you’re successful,” said Ducharme. “So we’re disappointed. But we respect this system, we respect the jury for rendering its verdict. We asked the jury to make the decision and they gave their decision and we’ll absolutely respect the decision they made.”

Moynihan acknowledged the conviction won’t do much to help the diocese’s image, already tarnished by repeated sex abuse scandals. But she said diocese officials “hope and pray” the conviction can bring people some closure.

“It’s an unfortunate situation,” said Moynihan. “But we’ve taken all the actions that we can to rectify the situation and we’ve put more precautions in place. Of course it’s going to hurt our image but I think we’ve done everything that we can and parishioners and staff are very understanding and have been very helpful in the entire process. And I think they are probably happy with the outcome.”

twilhelm@windsorstar.com

Twitter.com/WinStarWilhelm