Ex-prisoner wins lawsuit against guard

A former inmate who was sexually assaulted by a guard at the old Oakalla prison in Burnaby has won his case. A B.C. Supreme Court judge has awarded Dale Wesley Curran $54,000.

The B.C. government has been ordered to pay Curran $44,000 of that because Oakalla was a provincial jail, and former guard Roderick David MacDougall has been ordered to pay $10,000.

• LINK: Full text of judgment

Curran is the ninth ex-prisoner to win a lawsuit against MacDougall.

Curran's lawyer says he represents 95 of the more than 100 men who have come forward with sexual assault allegations against MacDougall.

Brent Adair says their stories are all very similar: young men pressured into a sex act by an authority figure.

"Mr. MacDougall was very aggressive in his sexual predations. Usually it was either the very first meeting or the second meeting."

MacDougall was convicted of nine counts of indecent or sexual assault against Oakalla prisoners six years ago, and has already served his time.

But Adair says more ex-prisoners are coming forward every week, and he has given the Crown the names of nine men who say they are willing to testify at another criminal trial.

Oakalla was closed in 1991, and has been replaced by a large housing development.