On Thursday, August 17, 2000, friends of Anthony Bennett found his body and called police, Det. Kim Carr told CBC News. The Toronto Star later reported that Bennett was due to arrive in Ireland that day to be with his family.
The body was in his apartment at 40 Homewood Avenue, the Globe and Mail reported. Police did not release a cause of death at first. The Star reported in 2001 that the steak knife used to stab him in the neck lay next to the couch where he was found. His wallet, credit cards, computer, money, a gold ring and a watch were missing. The apartment was in a secure building near Carlton and Sherbourne Streets. Police said there was no sign of forced entry.
Bennett was 45. The Globe called him an Irish immigrant and a crisis worker at a clinic. The Star called him a crisis counsellor at a mental health centre, and in 2001 a psychiatric nurse. CBC said he had worked in Toronto for eight years as a crisis counsellor for mental health patients.
Two days before the body was found, a man tried to use Bennett’s credit card at a 7-Eleven at Yonge and Grosvenor Streets, the Star reported. An employee noticed that the signature on the sales slip did not match the card and called security. The man scuffled with a guard and ran.
On August 22, CBC News reported the death under the headline “Former Father Bennett murdered in Toronto.” The first sentence called him a former priest convicted of sex crimes in Newfoundland. The report said he had pleaded guilty to gross indecency in 1989, during the scandal over sexual abuse by priests that broke in the province. It ended by noting that another Irish priest who had served in Newfoundland, Fr. Gerry Curley, was murdered in Texas in 1991.
Bennett’s case had come to court in 1989. The Canadian Press reported that Anthony Patrick Bennett, an Irish native, was charged in St. John’s on Monday, January 30, with gross indecency, over an offence committed before he left the priesthood in October 1987. On October 10 he pleaded guilty in Newfoundland Supreme Court to one count of gross indecency with a teenage boy. The Crown read a statement from the complainant. The boy was 15 or 16 in 1981 or 1982, and the act took place at the Pouch Cove home of another priest, John Corrigan, who was by then serving a five-year term for sex offences against boys. The youth had consented, the court heard, but he was under the age of consent, which made the act illegal. Evidence that could identify him could not be reported.
Defence lawyer Donald MacBeath told the court that Bennett had told Archbishop Alphonsus Penney he had a problem with homosexuality and had sought treatment at a counselling centre for clergy in Ontario. The Edmonton Journal’s headline read “Archbishop knew in 1981 priest had problem with homosexuality.” MacBeath said Bennett returned to Newfoundland and served as a priest until 1987, when he decided he could not continue because of difficulties with his sexuality. The Journal’s report ended with a count: 18 priests, former priests and other members of Newfoundland’s Roman Catholic community had been charged or convicted of sex-related offences involving boys.
On October 18, Mr. Justice David Riche gave Bennett a suspended sentence and two years’ probation. The Canadian Press listed his reasons: the teenager had not been pressured into the act, Bennett had left the priesthood, and he was undergoing treatment for his “sexual problems.” The Winter Commission Report, as quoted on the blog Sylvia’s Site, records the judge as saying Bennett “is not a pedophile, he is a homosexual” and that it is “not unlawful to be a homosexual.”
In Toronto, police released video images of the man from the 7-Eleven on August 25, the Globe reported. They described him as between 19 and 22, about 5-foot-7 and 140 pounds, clean shaven, in a red V-neck shirt and light blue jeans, and called him the main suspect in the killing. The Star’s brief the next day opened by calling Bennett “Toronto’s latest homicide victim.”
Shortly before 3 a.m. on Thursday, September 7, police arrested a man near Yonge and Wellesley Streets after the victim of a street robbery pointed him out, the Star reported. The Globe noted that the arrest was a few blocks north of the 7-Eleven. Carr said the man was known by several names, had no fixed address and had been spending time on the streets between Yonge Street and Regent Park. He was Stephen Allan Earley, 23, with tattoos on his arms, shoulders and legs. He was charged with first-degree murder in Bennett’s death and remanded in custody at College Park court. Carr said there was no sign of forced entry and that police were working to determine whether Bennett knew him.
At the same press conference, Carr appealed for help finding Lindsay Faulkner, 15, a runaway from the Kingston area who also used the name Kerry York. The Star said she had been seen with Earley. The Globe called it an unusual step to announce a missing person at an arrest. Carr said police had no reason to believe she was involved and no evidence she had been harmed. Her family had last heard from her on August 24 and was concerned for her safety.
The Globe noted that it was the second murder charge in three days for the homicide squad. On Wednesday, police had announced an arrest in the attack on Tina Wu, 18, and her sister Teresa, 14, in a North York basement apartment, the Globe and the Toronto Sun reported. Toronto had recorded 44 homicides in 2000, the Globe said, against 47 in all of 1999.
On June 22, 2001, Earley pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Mr. Justice David Watt sentenced him to life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 15 years, the Star reported. The court heard that Earley had been arrested on a robbery charge in September and confirmed to police that he was wanted for Bennett’s murder. Before his arrest he had told an acquaintance that he had killed someone. “I cut his throat and I just left him,” he said. Police had said the two men knew each other.
Asked if he had anything to say, Earley called the crime horrendous and said he was under the influence of drugs at the time.
Bennett’s sister, Mary Hennon, who lives in Belgium, gave a written victim-impact statement. “My family and I are the ones serving a life sentence,” she stated.
Vital statistics
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Name | Anthony Patrick Bennett (Anthony Bennett; “Father Anthony Bennett” while a priest) |
| Born | Ireland |
| Age | 45 (2000 and 2001 reports); the 1989 reports gave 32, and 33 in January 1989 |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Crisis worker or crisis counsellor (Globe, Star, CBC); psychiatric nurse (Star, 2001). Former Roman Catholic priest, left the priesthood in October 1987 |
| Date of death | Found dead August 17, 2000 |
| Manner of death | Stabbed in the neck with a steak knife |
| Location | 40 Homewood Ave., Toronto (apartment) |
| Accused | Stephen Allan Earley, 23, of no fixed address |
| Charge | First-degree murder |
| Judge | Mr. Justice David Watt |
| Verdict | Pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, June 22, 2001 |
| Sentence | Life imprisonment, no chance of parole for 15 years |
Sources
- The Medicine Hat News, January 31, 1989, p. 14 (Canadian Press)
- The Edmonton Journal, October 11, 1989 (Canadian Press)
- Toronto Star, October 19, 1989 (Canadian Press)
- The Lethbridge Herald, October 19, 1989, p. 19 (Canadian Press)
- CBC News, “Former Father Bennett murdered in Toronto,” August 22, 2000
- The Globe and Mail, August 26, 2000, p. A23
- Toronto Star, August 26, 2000, p. B3
- The Globe and Mail, September 8, 2000, p. A21
- Toronto Star, September 8, 2000, p. B4
- The Toronto Sun, September 8, 2000, p. 10
- Toronto Star, June 23, 2001, p. B3
- Sylvia’s Site, “Bennett: Father Anthony Bennett” (blog post quoting the Winter Commission Report)
Murder Village Map