Canadian monk in Thailand admits to sexual relations

BANGKOK: Well-known Canadian monk Phra Julien Apataro, who spent almost 20 years living as a monk on a remote hillside in the Sop Moei district of Mae Hong Son province, admitted on a televised news show on Friday (Aug 9) to having had sexual relations with women.

Apologising to Thai people over this serious monastic indiscipline, the monk, in his early 40s, whose layman name is Julien Desilets, told Channel 3’s Thiangwan Tan Hetkarn (News Updates at Noon) that he would leave the monkhood in a ceremony presided over by his preceptor monk.