Bertrand Charest, the former national youth ski coach who was sentenced to 12 years in prison for sexually abusing his teenage protegés in the 1990s, is getting out of prison — at least temporarily.
Charest, 53, was sentenced on 37 counts of sexual abuse and sentenced to 12 years back in December 2017. But his lawyers are appealing both sentence and verdict, and on Monday, appeals court judge Martin Vauclair suggested Charest would not represent a flight risk, nor would he represent a risk of re-offending, if he were to be let out while awaiting his appeal.
While he's out, Charest has to respect certain conditions. He won't be allowed to leave Quebec, communicate with his victims, or be around anyone under age 18.
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KENTVILLE, N.S. — KENTVILLE, NS - A Yarmouth man who was declared a dangerous offender in 2014 and sentenced to indeterminate custody has been denied day parole and full parole.
The Parole Board of Canada (PBC) recently conducted an in-office review of the case of Gordon Frank Nickerson, 42, a second-time aboriginal federal offender. Nickerson provided written comments for the review, which resulted in the board denying him day and full parole.
Nickerson pleaded guilty to all 12 charges against him in April 2012. The Crown made application to the court at that time to have Nickerson declared a dangerous offender.
At a sentencing hearing in September 2014, Judge Alan Tufts said there are four avenues for the Crown to seek a dangerous offender declaration and, if Nickerson met any of those four sets of criteria, the court must find him dangerous.
These include a pattern of repetitive behaviour, a pattern of persistent aggressive behaviour, an offence of a brutal nature and failure to control sexual impulses. In summarizing his written decision, Tufts said he was satisfied “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Nickerson met all four sets of criteria.
Nickerson was arrested on Feb. 29, 2012. He was charged with two counts of kidnapping; two counts of committing sexual assault while carrying a weapon or imitation weapon, breaking and entering a house and committing the indictable offence of kidnapping, two counts of committing anal intercourse and breaching a recognizance.
Nickerson was charged also with two counts of assault; dangerous driving and failing to stop after being involved in an accident with the intent of escaping civil or criminal liability.
According to file information, Nickerson had entered the residence of his intended victim to wait for her and confront her. A close family member of the victim entered the residence and Nickerson sexually assaulted her and bound her with duct tape.
When his intended victim arrived home, he bound her as well. Nickerson forced the two victims into a vehicle and violently sexually assaulted his intended victim. He was armed with a knife and threatened the women to gain compliance.
Nickerson drove the vehicle with the women inside. When he slowed down, they attacked him and exited the vehicle. Nickerson sped through traffic, went through the intersection of Commercial Street and Middle Dyke Road in New Minas and caused a collision. Nickerson fled the scene.
Victim impact statements were submitted to the court and the PBC received a victim statement in March 2017. According to a written decision from the PBC, these statements “clearly outline the significant emotional and mental trauma you (Nickerson) have caused your victims and how your behaviour continues to have lasting negative impact upon their sense of personal security and well-being.”
ASSESSING NICKERSON’S CASE
Nickerson committed his current offences within nine months of the Warrant Expiry Date (WED) of his first federal sentence. During his first federal sentence, the PBC granted Nickerson day parole and he remained in the community for two years. His release was suspended after he failed to report a relationship, breaching a special condition to do so.
The latest psychological assessment of Nickerson completed in October 2018 indicates that he is at a high risk for general, violent and sexual recidivism if he is released in the community. An assessment completed in 2017 indicated that Nickerson had “Borderline Personality Disorder along with narcissistic and antisocial traits.” According to the Spousal Assault Risk Assessment (SARA), Nickerson’s imminent risk of violence toward a partner and others is high.
Nickerson waived his right to a hearing and did not provide the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) with a release plan. A community strategy was not sought because there are no confirmed release destinations for Nickerson. Nickerson’s Case Management Team (CMT) recommended that he be denied day parole and full parole.
The most recent correctional plan on file for Nickerson, from January 2018, identified personal-emotional and marital-family to be in “high need for improvement.” This remained unchanged from Nickerson’s intake assessment.
The board noted that Nickerson’s criminal cycle began at an early age and that he has an “extensive, serious and violent criminal record.”
The parole board decision states that Nickerson’s “index crimes represent an escalation in the severity of your (Nickerson’s) criminality and in addition to causing significant emotional trauma to your victims, had the potential for tragic consequences.”
The decision went on to state that Nickerson’s risk of violence is agitated by poor emotions management and unhealthy relationships. His current offences repeated earlier criminal behaviour involving violent sexual crimes.
“The board believes this demonstrates the type of serious and violent crimes you (Nickerson) are capable of committing, and an ongoing propensity for gratuitous sexual violence,” the decision states.
“The board considers this to be aggravating in your likelihood to reoffend.”
Nickerson has successfully completed some programming during his second federal sentence. The decision states that he has gained some insight into his risk factors and how they were impacted by his aboriginal social history. He has embraced culturally appropriate ceremonies and activities and has been engaged with elders.
However, the board notes that there is still reluctance on Nickerson’s part to be open and transparent with his CMT and to follow the team’s direction and guidance in order to continue addressing his risk factors and prepare for a gradual reintegration into society.
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At 11:47 p.m. ET on Dec. 30, 2017, Joshua Boyle picked up the phone and dialled 911, prompting Ottawa police to show up at the apartment he shared with his then spouse and their children.
It was the day Caitlan Coleman was "finally able to walk away from Mr. Boyle" after months of alleged domestic abuse, Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham told court as Boyle's trial began Monday.
On Tuesday, Boyle's 911 call was played in court.
"My wife is threatening to kill herself," he's heard telling the dispatcher in five minutes of the 911 audio. He says she has an "extreme mental instability" called borderline personality disorder, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) "and a few other things."
But the call was a ruse, the Crown intends to prove — an attempt by Boyle to divert suspicion away from himself and onto someone else.
Two days later, Boyle was arrested and charged with a raft of offences, including public mischief (misleading police with the 911 call and ensuing investigation), assault with a weapon, sexual assault and forcible confinement.
Boyle has pleaded not guilty to all 19 charges, laid after the couple returned to Canada in October 2017 with the three children they had while in captivity for five years in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
'Did not want to hit her'
Sgt. Shane Henderson was one of the two police officers who responded to Boyle's 911 call.
Boyle greeted Henderson at the door of the unit holding an infant, told Henderson he and Coleman had been in an argument, and that he "didn't want to drag Caitlan back into the apartment" and "did not want to hit her," Henderson recalled jotting down in his notes.
After Henderson looked for Coleman elsewhere inside and outside the apartment building, he came back to the couple's unit to get more details.
Boyle told Henderson that Coleman suffered from a personality disorder, anxiety and PTSD, that she was stressed after an argument about the kids drawing on the wall, "and about Caitlan as a wife not performing her duties and her roles and responsibilities as a mother," Henderson testified.
Boyle worried about what wife would tell police
Boyle said "he offered to have sex with Caitlan if she wanted to," Henderson went on, and that Boyle told him he asked Coleman to stay in a bedroom to calm down, but he kept the door open and never prevented her from leaving.
Henderson asked if Coleman had a cellphone, to see if they could trace it to find her, and made a note of Boyle grabbing a chair to reach the top of the fridge, where he kept Coleman's flip phone.
"He said he took Caitlan's phone away to make sure she didn't break it, as she had broken phones in the past," Henderson testified.
The officer then got ready to leave and continue searching for Coleman.
"As I left, Boyle told me that he was concerned, as any husband would be, what Caitlan would say to us when we found her," Henderson told court.
The trial before Ontario Court Justice Peter Doody resumes Tuesday after the lunch break.
The 19 charges Boyle faces are:
One count of sexual assault while threatening to use a weapon (ropes).
One count of sexual assault with a weapon (ropes).
One count of uttering a threat to cause death.
Nine counts of assault.
One count of assault with a weapon (a broomstick).
Three counts of unlawful confinement.
One count of administering a noxious substance (the antidepressant Trazodone).
One count of public mischief (misleading a police officer into believing that someone was suicidal and missing, causing the officer to start an investigation, and thereby diverting suspicion away from Boyle).
One count of criminal harassment.
Police allege the offences happened in Ottawa between Oct. 14, 2017, and Dec. 30, 2017.
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A former Brantford Scout leader and hockey coach has been found guilty of indecent assault for incidents that date back more than 40 years.
The man cannot be identified since it could identify his two victims, whose names are protected by a court-ordered publication ban.
He will be sentenced May 6.
“I have found both complainants to be credible and their testimony reliable,” said Justice John Harper as he pronounced the verdict in Superior Court.
“I find as a fact and beyond a reasonable doubt that all of the incidents of sexual encounters … happened.”
The judge noted that the similarities in the stories of the two victims moved him “toward absolute certainty” of the guilt of the accused.
The convicted man, known in the judge’s decision as C.E.C., is now 67 years old and lives near Peterborough. But, in the 1970s, he was a Scout leader and coach with the Brantford Church Hockey League.
In 2015, a 56-year-old man told police he was sexually abused by C.E.C. After those charges were reported in the news, a 47-year-old man came forward with a similar story.
One man said he was assaulted from 1972 and 1975 and the other said he was assaulted from 1975 to 1977.
“Both complainants were young children,” said Harper.
“C.E.C. was in a position of trust and authority for both. Both boys were initially not conscious, either due to a substance or being asleep.”
Harper determined that the boys didn’t know each other and did not talk to each other as the case proceeded.
Neither victim knew the specifics of the other’s story and the second victim only knew what little he read in the newspaper about the first set of charges.
Victim J was 14 when he met the Scout leader and C.E.C. asked him to transfer into his troop, affiliated with a local church.
When the Scouting group was going on a camping trip, J stayed overnight in C.E.C.’s home to help prepare for the trip. During the night, the man began fondling the teenager, who pretended to be sleeping.
One night at the camp, C.E.C. masturbated in front of the teen and tried to push his penis into his victim’s mouth. On another Scouting trip, C.E.C. again fondled the teen.
When J was about 16, he moved into a rooming house due to arguments with his family. C.E.C. slept over at the house one night. J testified in court that C.E.C. came to him in the night, picked him up and took him to the bed where he performed anal sex.
C.E.C. and his victim never discussed what happened.
At trial, the judge also heard from J’s wife, who eventually was told about the abuse. She encouraged J to go to the police.
J eventually went into group therapy and met a woman who was dealing with anxiety and depression due to the death of her husband.
When J learned that the woman’s husband had also been in a Scout troop led by C.E.C., he asked if the husband’s depression could have been due to being sexually touched by the Scout leader.
While the woman initially denied it, several years later, she got in touch and admitted her husband told her he had been touched by C.E.C., too.
J then went police.
The second victim, N, played on a church hockey team when he was 10 or 11 that was coached by C.E.C. His parents agreed the coach could take him to games and practices.
Once, before an early morning practice, N spent the night at C.E.C.’s house and was offered an alcoholic drink that “had some white powder in it.”
N told the court he passed out and awoke to the pain of C.E.C. having anal sex with him. He was petrified and passed out again.
In the morning, N pretended that nothing had happened and went to hockey practice.
At an out-of-town tournament, C.E.C. again gave N an alcoholic drink and had sex with him.
N refused to travel to next tournament and soon quit hockey.
He said C.E.C. tried to get in touch a few years later by “friending” him on Facebook but he declined the request.
At the trial, N’s ex-wife testified that he had talked to her several times about being molested by his hockey coach but got distraught and refused to provide details.
When N saw the news that C.E.C. had been arrested in 2015, his wife encouraged him to go to the police and he did.
At trial, assistant Crown attorney Derek Zuraw argued that the similar evidence given by the victims called out for a guilty verdict and the judge agreed.
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Former Scout leader, hockey coach guilty of assault
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A former Brantford Scout leader and hockey coach has been found guilty of indecent assault for incidents that date back more than 40 years.The man cannot be identified since it could identify his t… Quebec's Federation of General Practitioners is considering what to do with a Montreal general practicioner who whipped out his phone during physical exams to snap photos of women's private parts without their permission.
On Monday, the College of Physicians found Dr. Craig Smith guilty of at least two such offences last year. He took a crotch shot of one woman, and tried to photograph the bare breasts of another while she undressed.
Smith, who works out of the Centre médical Santé Mont-Royal in TMR, told the hearing he made a terrible mistake, is embarassed by his actions, and is both a good doctor and a good person.
His lawyer is recommending no more than a two year license suspension, though his suspension could last as long as five years.
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A statement of claim has been filed with the Nova Scotia Supreme Court alleging frequent abuse against former students of residential schools in Halifax and Amherst.
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