Perry Dunlop, shown here last September, was sentenced last March to six months in jail for contempt of court. He has a sentencing hearing next month for a criminal contempt of court conviction. (CBC)

Family, friends and supporters of Perry Dunlop are criticizing the way the former Cornwall police officer and key witness has been treated since refusing to testify in an Ontario public inquiry into sex abuse in Cornwall.

"Perry's rights have been thrown out the window," his wife Helen Dunlop said by telephone from her home in Duncan, B.C., on Wednesday as her husband remained in jail after being sentenced to six months on March 5.

The public inquiry is looking into the response of authorities to allegations that a large number of children and teens were abused in Cornwall over a period of decades. The inquiry follows police investigations that resulted in more than 100 charges against more than two dozen men but only a handful of convictions.

In the early 1990s, Perry Dunlop called attention to allegations of child sex abuse and helped launch an investigation despite payments made by local Catholic officials to keep the victim quiet and warnings from Dunlop's own superiors.

Dunlop spoke out on behalf of people who alleged they had been abused and to allege that Cornwall was rife with high-placed pedophiles. However, he faced discipline from his superiors and criticism, especially after one of his key sources later admitted to lying and exaggerating.

Dunlop had been expected to be an important witness at the inquiry. But, Dunlop refused to take the stand, saying he had no faith in the inquiry or in the justice system.

Dunlop moved to Toronto jail

He was convicted on a civil charge of contempt of court last September and sentenced in March. On the day of the sentencing, he was also convicted of criminal contempt of court. The sentencing for that conviction is to take place in September.

On Tuesday, Dunlop was moved temporarily from Ottawa to a detention centre in Lindsay en route to a jail in Toronto.

Helen Dunlop said Wednesday marked her husband's 186th day in jail, and she's trying to find out why he is still there, more than six months since the start of his incarceration of Feb. 17.

In the meantime, she said, her husband's plight has been largely forgotten.

Despite all he has been through, Helen Dunlop said her husband will not testify at the inquiry.

"This commission is, as far as we're concerned, just another form of cover-up so that the institutions can get away with what happened in Cornwall for over 40 years."

Supporters to hold rally

She said she and other supporters will be holding a rally on Aug. 28 in front of the building where the Cornwall Inquiry is taking place to protest her husband's sentencing for criminal contempt of court, which could put him in jail for up to 15 more months.

Sylvia MacEachern, an advocate for victims of abuse and a friend of Perry Dunlop's, said she spoke to Dunlop by phone Tuesday night.

"He sounds amazingly good…They think they're going to break him, but they're just making him stronger," she said Wednesday in Ottawa. "They think this is going to do something to instill faith in the administration of justice — it's destroying people's faith."

MacEachern also alleges that Dunlop has been unfairly treated.

"Every other inmate in Canada gets time off for good behaviour, they get time off for time served, most get double time. Perry gets none. Perry's done six months and now he is serving extra time for who knows what."

Roger Robertson, a Calgary man who said he was abused in Cornwall during his childhood, said he is trying to call attention to Dunlop's treatment by riding across the country on a motorcycle.

Robertson, who approached Dunlop with his allegations in the 1990s, had made it from B.C. to Ottawa on Wednesday. Robertson said he himself was once sentenced to six months in jail, but only served four. He said he has no faith in the inquiry either and believes Dunlop has been unfairly treated.

The Cornwall Inquiry, which is being presided over by judge Normand Glaude, resumes next Monday.