JAPAN
Japan Times
BY SIMON SCOTT
OCT 27, 2014
Catholic Brother and St. Mary’s International School teacher Benoit Lessard, who has been accused of molesting boys on annual school trips to Yamanashi Prefecture, died of cancer in 1980 aged 64.
The summer tradition of sixth-grade students from St. Mary’s in Tokyo spending a few days at the Seisen-Ryo complex, aka the KEEP Camp, in the Yamanashi resort area of Kiyosato died with him.
Lessard’s replacement as sixth-grade homeroom teacher was a man named Don Andrews.
Andrews, a layman rather than a Catholic Brother like Lessard, had worked under Lessard as a student teacher until the latter’s death, after which Andrews was instated as a full-time teacher.
Although there have been no allegations of sexual abuse made against Andrews by former St. Mary’s students, his record after leaving the school is far from pristine.
Between 1991 and 1992 Andrews was hired as principal of St. Patrick Catholic School in Spokane, Washington. He also taught English literature to seventh- and eighth-grade students.
In 1995 an allegation surfaced that he had sexually abused a 13-year-old male student at the school. He was fired from his position and charged with second-degree child molestation, but his case initially ended in a mistrial in 1996, local media reports and official state documents show. To avoid a retrial on the same charges, Andrews pled guilty to the lesser charge of third-degree assault against a minor in March 1997.
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