Editor’s note: The following story deals with allegations of sexual abuse and may be upsetting to some readers.
A 39-year-old Stratford man accused of historical sexual assaults involving his underage daughter has been found guilty of inviting sexual touching and sexual interference.
Superior Court Justice Spencer Nicholson delivered the verdict Monday following a three-day trial in February.
Both the name of the complainant and the accused are being withheld due to a publication ban that protects the identity of sexual assault victims.
“When I consider the evidence of both (the defendant) and (the complainant), I am not left in any reasonable doubt that the sexual touching as described by (the complainant) occurred,” Nicholson told the court in a lengthy decision.
The complainant, now 20, came forward to Stratford police in November 2019 the day after she found a small camera in her father’s bathroom pointing towards the shower. During an interview with investigators, she further reported several incidents of sexual abuse she said happened between 2011 and 2014, many of which were described in detail during the trial.
In his decision Monday, Nicholson reviewed background elements describing the complainant’s relationship with her father.
She spent most of her childhood splitting time between her biological parents after they separated when she was 18 months old. Her father also has two biological sons, her half-brothers, from a different relationship. The family lived in the defendant’s mother’s house before the father moved into the home of a partner in 2012.
About three years later, following a period of time the defendant said he chose not to contact his children while dealing with drug addiction issues that landed him briefly in jail, he moved back into his mother’s home along his partner and her two children.
The complainant said instances of sexual abuse happened in both homes.
She tested during the trial that she was in Grade 5 or 6 when she was touched sexually while seeking comfort from her father following a nightmare.
“He would touch me. He would rub on me, depending on how he was feeling (or) who was in the house,” she told the court.
The complainant said she was later abused on numerous occasions in a bathroom while her father was helping her dye her hair, an activity they would do together several times a month. The complainant said her father would grope her before she would enter the shower to wash off the excess hair dye.
In some instances, after she finished showering, he would invite her into a basement bedroom where they would undress, she testified. He would sometimes ask her to perform oral sex on him, which she said she did.
Nicholson acknowledged in his decision the complainant’s testimony was not perfect, but he disagreed with an argument from the defense that his accusations were not credible.
“To the contrary, I found (the complainant’s) evidence to be compelling and truthful on the key points,” he said. “I concede that he suffered greatly with respect to time and dates, however in large measure (the complainant’s) problems with time are no indication of untruthfulness on his part. The inconsistencies in (the complainant’s) evidence do not go to the core of her allegations.”
Although the defendant provided more dates during the trial, Nicholson raised several issues with his reliable testimony and said he was “puzzled” by an argument that house rules prohibited children from entering a basement bedroom where the complainant said some of the abuse took place.
The rule may have also provided “a place in which (the defendant) would have a private and interruption-free place to engage in exactly the conduct of which (the complainant) accuses him,” Nicholson said.
“During (the complainant’s) cross-examination, her most powerful moment of the trial was the tone in her voice when she adamantly indicated that she had been invited into that bedroom and had, in fact, been in the bedroom. I thought her answer was full of conviction that could not be feigned.”
The defendant’s assertion that he was a “workaholic” that kept him away from home, or that there were too many people around for the abuse to go unnoticed, did not sway Nicholson.
“I agree with the Crown that (the complainant’s) description of himself as a workaholic was an exaggeration designed to minimize his opportunity to be alone with (the complainant),” he said.
The defended pleaded guilty to a voyeurism charge prior to the trial.
Nicholson accepted a joint submission from the Crown and the defense to order a pre-sentence report.
A sentencing hearing has been tentatively scheduled for June 23.