WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

It’s a face that Victoria McIntosh worked so hard to block from her mind — Father Arthur Masse.

The retired priest is now facing a charge of sexually assaulting McIntosh more than 50 years ago, when she was just 10 years old and a student at the Fort Alexander residential school in Sagkeeng First Nation, in eastern Manitoba. 

“I remember that smile,” said McIntosh. “At first, he was nice.… He was soft in his mannerism, but at the same time he reminded me of a snake —he would just slither.”

McIntosh, 63, is speaking out for the first time about what happened to her