BishopAccountability.org
	Alleged Victim Questioned By Aaron Hall The Daily News December 3, 2008 http://www.chathamdailynews.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1326771 The trial resumed yesterday in Chatham in the case of a 69-year-old former local minister facing allegations of sexual abuse. Defence lawyer David Jacklin cross-examined the alleged victim, who is not being named. The complainant claims Rev. Robert James Duthie sexually abused him on multiple occasions between 1975-1982 when Duthie was a minister at Victoria Avenue United Church in Chatham. After the complainant, now 46, watched a video statement he made to the Chatham-Kent Police Service in 2006, court resumed and Jacklin questioned the complainant about allegations of sexual encounters at a church retreat in Forest. Jacklin pointed out on a transcript of the complainant's statement that he indicated to the Det. Jim Niven of the Chatham- Kent Police Service that only one incident ever occurred while on the retreats. Jacklin said the complainant told assistant Crown attorney Rob MacDonald on Monday that the "incident happened in the church. "In the statement you say 'I think it happened in the cabin. I can't remember if it happened in the church.' When you talked to Mr. MacDonald (yesterday) you all of a sudden remember where it happened?" Jacklin asked. The complainant said yes. Jacklin asked the complainant if he ever had any problems with drugs, alcohol and gambling throughout his life. The complainant said he had abused marijuana, purple oil and prescription medication including "692s" and demerol. On one occasion, the alleged victim said he was hospitalized for having an allergic reaction to morphine. "The morphine ended up making me hallucinate," the complainant told the court. "I was seeing things . . . I was seeing water in my hands." Jacklin asked the complainant if the allegations against Duthie stemmed from the hallucinations. "We don't really know what was going on because you were hallucinating," Jacklin said. The alleged victim said "I was having flashbacks of the abuse when I thought water was in my hands." The complainant testified he started drinking heavily when he was about 19 and received a nickname from his friends for being heavily involved with drugs. The man testified he became $49,000 in debt stemming from a gambling problem around 2000. Jacklin questioned the complainant about allegations stemming from when the man was 19 and living on his own. The alleged victim testified he invited Duthie over to his home for prayer counselling. "As a result from the (sexual abuse allegations) you invite him over to your house?" Jacklin asked. Stemming from the alleged incidents occurring in Duthie's office, Duthie's home or at the retreats in Forest, Jacklin asked the complainant if he ever said anything after. "I couldn't . . . I was scared," the complainant said. The complainant's mother was also called to the stand yesterday by MacDonald. The woman testified that her son "seemed withdrawn" on an occasion when he was between the age of 12 and 14 when he returned home from a church retreat in Forest. "I suggested he go see (Duthie)," she told the court. "He really became angry and said he didn't want to hear his name mentioned ever again." Duthie pleaded not guilty in Superior Court on Monday to charges of indecent assault on a male and gross indecency. The trial resumes this morning.
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