"Sexual Touching" Is "Issue" in Trial

By Sue Yanagisawa
Kingston Whig-Standard
August 4, 2016

http://www.thewhig.com/2016/08/04/sexual-touching-is-issue-in-trial

The sexual molestation trial of a retired 68-year-old Roman Catholic priest, who served in this area in the late 1980s and into the 1990s, concluded Thursday with his lawyer acknowledging that his client's accuser "has had a very difficult life."

"We're all sympathetic," defence lawyer Clyde Smith told Superior Court Justice Wolfram Tausendfreund, "but we don't get to make the decision in this case on sympathy. We don't get to make it on speculation either."

Smith's client, Robyn Q. Gwyn, was put on trial on five charges arising from a time period between the fall of 1984 and the summer of 1993. They include two counts of sexually assaulting the complainant when he was an adolescent and young teen; touching him when he was under 14 for a sexual purpose; sexually exploiting a position of trust; and invitation to sexual touching. Gwyn pleaded not guilty to all of them.

But assistant Crown attorney Gerard Laarhuis told the judge Thursday that he's seeking convictions only on the first two counts of the indictment -- the sexual assault charges. And "the issue," he told the judge, "is really sexual touching without consent and without the capacity to give consent," because of the complainant's age at the time.

Gwyn's accuser, who is now 41, was hazy in his recall of exactly how he first met the priest or when, but believed it was through his school, during preparation for confirmation while still in the elementary grades. He testified earlier this week that it ended when he was around 16.

Gwyn, who now lives in Nova Scotia, opted not to testify in his own defence.

Instead, defence lawyer Smith called Joseph Hamilton, who was principal of St. Patrick Catholic School between 1983 and 1989, and retired special ed teacher Bonnie Henderson. They both remembered Gwyn's accuser but told Justice Tausendfreund they didn't know Gwyn and had never seen him inside St. Patrick's during the time they were there.

Hamilton said priests did come into the classroom to talk to the students about the Catholic religion as part of the school's curriculum, but they were from nearby St. John the Apostle Catholic Church.

Hamilton first met Gwyn, he said, at a baptism at St. Francois D'Assise Catholic Church, where Gwyn was pastor in 1992, and he told the judge "I probably met him once or twice."

Hamilton also didn't recall an incident the complainant recounted earlier in the trial, in which he as principal was supposed to have investigated injuries to the complainant's adolescent face. Gwyn's accuser testified that the marks, which he recalled as being severe, were inflicted by his drug-addicted mother. But he said he'd been coached to say they were the result of a fight with another boy. He told Justice Tausendfreund that the cover story failed when Hamilton made him point out the assailant's house and he pointed out the garage of a nun.

But Hamilton, who's been retired since 1995, said he couldn't recall his former student having any injuries that concerned him. He said he was aware of his involvement as a boy with the Children's Aid Society and knew from his Ontario Student Record that there were allegations of abuse at the hands of a parent. But "I did not intervene," he testified, "because I did not see any signs" of physical abuse.

Henderson, who retired eight years ago after 17 years teaching and 13 as an administrator, recalled Gwyn's accuser as "a nice young man" and described him as quiet and shy but with "a quick sense of humour." She said he tried to cover up his difficulties and was self-conscious about his clothing and about coming from an impoverished home. But she also recalled "he had a little more potential than some of the other students" and told the judge she thought she was getting through to him until, "I would say closer to his Grade 8 years," he simply "shut down."

Gwyn's accuser had earlier told Justice Tausendfreund the priest started touching him sexually somewhere around his transition between elementary and high school.

Gwyn wasn't ordained until 1988, however.

William Gervais, a deacon of the church employed by the Archdiocese of Kingston as archbishop's delegate for misconduct, told Justice Tausendfreund that Gwyn was at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, Conn., from 1984 until 1987 when he returned to Kingston to be ordained a deacon at St. Mary's Cathedral, where he served what amounted to a one-year internship prior to ordination.

Gwyn did return to this area during summer breaks while still in seminary, according to Gervais: archdiocese records reveal he was assigned in 1985 to work with the pastor at Holy Family on Wiley Street and the following summer was sent to St. Anthony of Padua in Centreville, north of Camden East.

Archdiocese records also reveal, however, that John Hibbard, the rector of St. Mary's Cathedral in 1987-88, declined to recommend Gwyn's ordination and complained about his unacceptable behaviour.

Gervais agreed with Crown prosecutor Laarhuis that one of Hibbard's biggest complaints was that he never knew where Gwyn was. He didn't sleep at the rectory, wasn't performing pastoral work, and stopped preaching every second week early in his deaconship.

Gervais also agreed that Hibbard found him immature as a deacon, thought he hadn't fully addressed the issue of celibacy, and assessed Gwyn as a bully who didn't accept the word "no."

Justice Tausendfreund was told as well that Gwyn underwent an assessment by a psychiatrist in 2004 at the Royal Ottawa Hospital, during which he admitted to having had sex with either four or nine boys between 14 and 16 years of age. He claimed that he hadn't had sex since 1989, however, a year after his ordination, and also claimed "I have not acted out in 15 to 20 years. I do not want to and I do not intend to."

Justice Tausendfreund will deliver his decision on the case in late September.

Contact: syanagisawa@postmedia.com