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	Not Guilty of Exploiting Teen Judge Rules 17-Year-Old Girl Made up Accounts of Sexual Abuse By Dianne Wood The Record January 10, 2008 http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/293131 Tears erupted on both sides of a Kitchener courtroom yesterday after a judge acquitted a former church youth leader of sexually exploiting a young girl under his care. The 54-year-old man who had been accused of at least 10 incidents of intercourse, anal sex and oral sex by the 15-year-old girl, fell into the arms of his family in Superior Court in Kitchener. The girl, who was with her parents on the other side of the courtroom, also burst into tears before walking out with her parents and a support person. "Disgusting," her mother said loudly on the way out. "Judgment day will come," the teen, who is now 17, said outside court later. "It is very disappointing. It's been three years of my life." The acquitted man shed tears for a different reason. "Thank God it's over," he said, as his wife led him away sobbing. His friends and family gathered around him, hugging and gathering to pray after the verdict. In finding him not guilty, Justice James Ramsay said he had "no problem with the credibility of the accused," whose denial of the allegations he found to be "probable and reasonable." In contrast, he said, there were "some inherent implausibilities" in the complainant's evidence. For example, on one of the days she said she and the man had sex at his home, the man's cleaning lady testified she didn't see the girl at the house that morning. The cleaning lady left at noon. The teen said she recalled that particular sexual encounter because it happened while a Montel Williams' television show about sexual abuse was playing on television in the basement of the man's home. Crown prosecutor Mark Poland determined the episode played at 1 p.m. on Dec. 8, 2005, the same day school records showed the girl as absent from school. But the man said the girl woke up that day and asked him to drive her to her parents' home in Kitchener because she was sick. She had been living with the man's family because of problems with her own family but still kept in touch with her parents. The judge was bothered by the fact the girl couldn't recall what she had done that day before the alleged sexual activity. "She can't say where she was on Dec. 8," he said. He also didn't believe her testimony that she never put in eye drops for frequent eye infections herself. The girl had testified that one sexual encounter happened after she asked the man to put in eye drops for her. She lay on his bed to tilt her head back. "At that point, I detected deception in her demeanour," the judge said. The man's daughter contradicted the eye drop testimony, saying yesterday that she had seen the teen put in her own eye drops. The daughter also said her father never wrestled with the complainant as the teen alleged. The teen said the wrestling became sexual when the man touched her inappropriately. Outside court, the prosecutor said he is considering an appeal of the judge's decision. The man is not being identified to protect the identity of the complainant. During the three-day trial, the troubled girl, who said she came from a dysfunctional home, admitted she was flirtatious and that she initiated some of the sexual activity with the man who was considered to be in a position of trust over her. She met him at a Catholic church. He led a youth group on a one-week mission trip that she attended. He and his family invited her to live with them after her parents threatened to turn her over to Family and Children's Services in 2005. In his final arguments, the Crown wondered why the girl would fabricate the allegations. They came to police attention after she told a youth worker at her school in May 2006. "There was no animus between them," Poland said. "No falling out." He also wondered why she'd make up a story that reflected badly on her, since she admitted to initiating some of the sexual encounters. "She had absolutely no motive to churn up this rich fabrication of offences," he argued. But the judge said, "She could have had any number of reasons for making up the story. I find she did." The man's lawyer, Tom Brock, said outside court that the case was a "she-said, he-said" one, in which the credibility of the man and the girl was key. In the end, Brock said, the judge accepted the man's evidence over the complainant's. The judge announced his verdict after hearing final arguments only from the Crown. He said he didn't need to hear submissions from the defence. The man's son and daughter, along with friends from the man's Kitchener church, were there for the verdict. Contact: dwood@therecord.com
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