How Could You? Hall of Shame-Canada-Stacy Bohun case 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 Chilliwack, BC, Canada, foster parent and rock band member of Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Tim Bachman, 59, is on trial for “sex assault, sexual interference of a person under 14 and sexual  touching of a young person.” The victim is his former foster daughter Stacy Bohun, now 24. The name ban has been lifted in this case.

““He would get me to sit on his lap and kiss him,” she added. “One time he  tried to French kiss me … It was just a lot of weird, inappropriate  things.”

A ban on publication was imposed in 2010 on Bachman’s name to shield the  identity of the complainant. But the bans on both Bachman and Bohun were lifted  Wednesday by Justice Neill Brown after an application by a reporter with The  Canadian Press.

NAMES BAN LIFTED

The request was for the ban to be lifted on Bachman’s name, but Bohun told  the judge she didn’t mind being publicly identified.

The judge said usually the identities of sex assault complainants are  shielded to protect their privacy, but he lifted the ban on Bohun’s name at her  request.

“I’m not afraid,” Bohun, now 24, said after the judge’s ruling. “I want  people to know it’s OK to talk about it.”

She said children cannot provide consent to having a sexual relationship with  an adult.

“It took me a long time to realize that,” Bohun said.

FOSTER CHILD

At the time of the alleged sexual abuse, from 2000 to 2004, Bohun was a  foster child living in Bachman’s home in the Fraser Valley. She recalled having  a troubled childhood. When she was a one-year-old, her three-year-old sister,  Casey Bohun, vanished without a trace from the family home in Delta, B.C., in  August 1989. Her mother, Barbara Bohun, took her own life in 2001 while Stacy  was in foster care at the Bachman home.

“I miss her every day,” Stacy Bohun said of her mother, tears welling in her  eyes.

“I can’t imagine losing my own baby,” she added, noting she now has a baby,  born last July, and can’t imagine what her mother went through.

STRONG FOR HER KID

Bohun said she knows she has to be strong for her own child and be a good  mother. She hopes one day to work with children as a youth counsellor or  teacher. She said she was put in foster care because she started “acting out”  and her mother felt unable to cope.

Before the ban was lifted, Bohun told the court that her foster father,  Bachman, would grope her breasts. As an 11-year-old, her breasts were small and  she told the court Bachman gave her breast enhancement pills.

He would also caress her buttocks and vaginal area with his fingers but they  never had sexual intercourse, she said, although she almost had sex with Bachman  one day.

Bachman was giving Bohun a ride in his van and they stopped to discuss sex  and her losing her virginity, she told the judge.

TALKED ABOUT SEX

“I said if I was going to lose my virginity, it should be him,” she  testified. “That’s how sick and twisted the relationship was.”

Bachman responded at the time by saying “If we’re going to do this, we should  do it now,” she told the court.

But she backed out, Bohun testified, estimating she was 13 or 14 at the time  of their conversation.

She finally ended their four-year sexual relationship in 2004 at 14 when she  ran away from the Bachman home, she said.

“I just remember being fed up and not being able to take it anymore,” she  said.

STARTED TAKING DRUGS

Bohun blamed herself for allowing it to happen and started taking drugs to  help kill the painful memories, she testified. Finally, Bohun went to police in  2009 and revealed her under-age sexual relationship with Bachman, she said.  Bachman was charged in 2010.

Cross-examined by Jack Harris, Bachman’s lawyer, Bohun admitted her drug use  affected her memory. The lawyer pointed out that when Bohun testified at  Bachman’s preliminary hearing, she said she had “flashbacks” of what happened  with Bachman.

The defence lawyer suggested she may have imagined or visualized a sexual  relationship with Bachman, which she now believes are real memories.

“The drugs affected my memory but the memories are still there,” the witness  replied. “The drugs made it harder to remember the exact times.”

‘FLASHBACK’ MEMORIES

Harris pointed out that the witness previously said she had “flashback”  memories of her mother’s tragic death, even though she wasn’t there when her  mother died. The witness explained that she tried to imagine how her mother  died.

Harris suggested the witness imagined and visualized the incidents with  Bachman, much like she did for her mother’s death.

“All I know is I was sexually abused. I remember that,” the witness replied.  “I’m not making things up … It’s horrible what he did to me.”

REAL ESTATE AGENT

Bachman, 59, has been a Fraser Valley real estate agent for many years. Now  white-haired, he came to court wearing a blue pin-striped suit.

He was an early member of BTO along with his brother Randy Bachman, a  founding member of the Guess Who before he left the band in 1970.

The Winnipeg-based BTO released its first album in May 1973. The band’s  second album, Bachman–Turner Overdrive II, released in December 1973, became a  huge hit in the U.S. and Canada, with hit singles Let it Ride and Takin’ Care of  Business. In 1974, Tim Bachman left BTO, which eventually sold almost 30 million  records worldwide. He has rejoined BTO for tours over the years.”

 

Former foster child tells of ‘sick and twisted’ relationship with legendary Canadian rocker

[The Province 4/11/13 by Neal Hall, The Canadian Press]

REFORM Puzzle Pieces

Update: “Tim Bachman, who co-founded the iconic Canadian rock band Bachman-Turner Overdrive, was found not guilty Wednesday of sex charges brought by a woman who was a foster child in his home.

A British Columbia judge concluded the testimony of Stacy Bohun, now 24, was unreliable because of inconsistencies in her statements over the years.

“I did not find Ms. Bohun was a deliberately dishonest witness,” the judge said in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster.

Bohun testified when she was between the ages of 11 and 14, she was living in Bachman’s home and was in a “sick relationship” with him that involved groping and fondling, but never intercourse. She said Wednesday she was disappointed with the verdict.

Bohun’s name was originally banned from publication, but the judge granted her request when she said she wanted the ban lifted because she wasn’t afraid to talk about it.

Bachman was accused of sexual assault, sexual touching and sexual interference of a person under 14.

Justice Neill Brown noted that the Crown’s evidence fell short of what was needed to convict.”

Bachman-Turner Overdrive co-founder found not guilty of sexually abusing former foster child

[National Post 5/1/13 by Neal Hall]