How Could You? Hall of Shame-Canada-Foster Father UPDATED

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Aberdeen, Canada, a “young woman testified Monday that her relationship with her foster father — where she was placed at 4 1/2 years old — changed when she was 14, when he told her she was “gorgeous.”

The father, now in his 60s, is on trial, charged with touching for a sexual purpose by a person in a position of trust, as well as two other counts of sexual assault.

The accused cannot be named due to a court order that protects the identity of the two complainants. He sat at the front of the court, with a large contingent of supporters in the courtroom with him.

The B.C. Supreme Court trial is scheduled to last five days. It will hear from the foster daughter, her friend and her brother, who lived with her in the Aberdeen home.

Through questions to the woman, now 20, Crown lawyer Catriona Elliott began with an incident in March 2011. Then 18, she testified that she wanted to invite a friend to stay over at the home where she still lived with her foster family.

The two young women were drinking beer outside Pacific Way elementary when they decided to go to her house.

They later played cards and drank beer with her foster father. Later, he told them they could shower upstairs in his room. Her foster mother was away that evening, she testified.

The two young women were on a bed when he came in.

“I remember asking if he could watch us kiss,” she testified.

“To me it wasn’t weird because he had sexually abused me before.”

The woman said her foster father then asked to be involved in a sexual act with her friend.

“I do remember telling her it was OK.”

But when she awoke the next day and the pair discussed what happened.

“I felt really bad because I told her it was OK,” the woman said, struggling through tears.

She also said she felt a sense of relief because the abuse “wasn’t happening to me.”

The woman then recounted her first sexual encounter with her foster dad, saying she recalled it first happened when she was about 14 years old. Following that, she said she had sexual intercourse with her foster father as often as every other day, timed for when her foster mother went gambling.

Defence lawyer Rob Bruneau challenged statements the woman made to police. She did not tell police in her statement that she told her friend it was “OK” for her foster father to get in bed with her.

“I was ashamed,” the woman said.

But Bruneau said it appears she changed her story to coincide with her friend, who is also scheduled to testify.”

Foster father accused of sex with teen in his care

[Kamloops News 6/24/13 by Cam Fortems]

REFORM Puzzle Pieces

Update: “A 63-year-old Kamloops man was found not guilty Friday of sexually assaulting his foster daughter and her friend during a sleepover in March 2011.

The courtroom was eerily quiet for more than an hour and a half, as B.C. Supreme Court Justice Kathleen Ker read her decision. Ker found the man not guilty on all three counts.

While the complainant wept quietly, a crowd attending in support of the defendant burst into cheers.

The man — who cannot be named in accordance with a publication ban — faced charges of touching a young person for sexual purpose while in a position of trust and two counts of sexual assault. He was alleged to have assaulted both his foster daughter and her friend. The foster daughter said abuse dated back to 2007, when she was 14.

Ker said in light of the inconsistencies in the stories of the two young women — as well as the inconsistencies between their testimony in court and the version of events they gave to police — the Crown failed to prove the foster father’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

“I am left with no other conclusion than that it would be dangerous to rely on (the complainants),” Ker said. “I note that there are at least eight to 10 inconsistencies in the series of events as relayed.”

Defence lawyer Rob Bruneau argued that the foster daughter — described as a troubled teen with behavioural issues —concocted the entire story and drew her friend into it.

Bruneau said the foster daughter wanted to move out of the home and in with her brother or boyfriend at the time. The defence believes she came forward with the alleged assault in hopes of making that happen.”

Foster dad cleared of charges in sex case

[Kamloops News 6/28/13 by Adam Williams]