Wednesday afternoon, a judge in a Brantford court sentenced George Ferris to 18 months in prison – in addition to the four-year sentence he was handed the previous day.
Ferris, a retired minister with ties to several southwestern Ontario communities, was first arrested and charged with sexual assault and sexual exploitation in 2011.
Further charges were laid as more victims came forward.
In the case that came to a close Tuesday, he was sentenced to four years in prison for multiple sexual assaults of Christopher Morrison, then a teenager, over a six-year period beginning in 1983.
The Cambridge resident returned to Brantford on Wednesday to learn his fate regarding two other cases for which he had been convicted – sexual assaults of two other people during the 1980s.
One of the victims was a then-13-year-old boy, who Ferris sexually assaulted in a hot tub at a London motel during a church conference.
“This man has ruined my life. I’ve spent 20 years living in shame and pain,” the victim – whose identity is protected by a publication ban – told the court.
“I’m reclaiming today that piece of my soul you stole 20 years ago.”
The second case saw Ferris sexually assault a young man in a church following a Christmas Eve service.
While Ferris apologized to Morrison on Tuesday, he made no such remarks before he was sentenced Wednesday.
Before retiring from the Anglican Church of Canada, Ferris – who pleaded not guilty to all charges levied against him – ministered at churches in Cambridge, Paris, Six Nations, Walkerton and Waterloo.
