Ex-priest Eric Dejaeger denied Nunavut legal aid in appeal of child sex convictions

Former RomanCatholic priest Eric Dejaeger has been denied funding by the Nunavut Legal Services boardfor a lawyer in his appeal of 24 convictions for sex crimesagainst children.

Dejaegerwas sentenced to 19 years in prison in February 2015 for crimes committed inIgloolikbetween 1978 and 1982.

Dejaeger appeared Wednesday in an Iqaluit courtroom via video conference. He's being held atWarkworth Institution, a medium-security federal prisonnear Campbellford, Ont.

It's not yet clear on what grounds he's appealing his convictions.

The 69-year-old has 30 days to appeal the Nunavut Legal Services board's decision to deny him funding for a lawyer.

Last year, Dejaeger was sentenced to five years in prisonafter pleading guilty tocharges relating to the sexual abuse of three childrenin Edmonton between 1975 and 1978 when he was studying at Newman Theological College. That sentence is to be served at the same time as the sentence for his Igloolikcharges.

Dejaeger previously served afive-year sentence for sexually abusingchildren in Baker Lake, Nunavut, where he was posted between 1982 and 1989.After servingthat sentence, in 1995he was charged forthe offences inIgloolikandhe fled to Belgium, where he lived for 16 years despite an international warrant for his arrest.

He was returned to Canada in 2011 to face the Igloolik charges.