Charges for man accused of sexually assaulting teen followed flawed investigation: Manitoba judge

An attempt to put a group home worker's name on Manitoba's child abuse registry was based on charges stemming from a "seriously flawed investigation," a Manitoba judge says.

Court of King's Bench Justice Kaye Dunlop said in a June ruling it's "overwhelmingly clear" the man could not have abused a girl at the group home he worked at in 2015.

The man, who was in his 50s at the time and is identified in the ruling only as "M.G.," was arrested in October 2017 and charged with sexual assault and sexual interference, after the girl told investigators she'd been touched at the group home when she was 13.

The man maintained his innocence. A trial was held at Court of King's Bench in February 2020, and during the direct examination of the girl, the Crown stayed the charges against the man, Dunlop's decision said.

However, the Child and Family All Nations Coordinated Response Network — a non-profit agency that provides intake and emergency child and family services in Winnipeg and surrounding areas — still moved to have the man's name put on the child abuse registry.

He was given notice in August 2021 that the agency intended to have his name added to the registry. He challenged the ANCR's move, with Dunlop ruling in his favour.

The judge said in her reasoning the agency acknowledged the investigation into the allegation was lacking. She said the burden of proof rested entirely on the organization, which didn't prove the man abused the child.

"This case is an example of the great responsibility held by players tasked not only with protecting children but also protecting society from unfounded claims," Dunlop wrote in her decision.

"This case is also an example of the profound effect that improper, incomplete and single focused investigations can have on an individual's life."

As much as the investigators owed a duty to the child, they did so just as much to M.- Justice Kaye Dunlop

The man was fired from his position at the group home after he was criminally charged. He had spent more than 20 years working with Child and Family Services at various homes before that, and had also worked with the Headingley Correctional Service.

The girl, who was from northern Manitoba, tried to harm herself in July 2015, when she was 13 years old, and was flown to Winnipeg. She eventually ended up in the group home where the man worked.

In the following years, she was placed in several other group homes around Winnipeg, and when she was 15, told her favourite worker at the Marymound group home she had been sexually assaulted.

The worker reported the incident to the girl's social worker, after which the ANCR agency got involved. She was interviewed by a provincial investigator in February 2017.

The decision said the girl told the investigator she had been sexually touched by a group home worker, whom she identified as a white, bald man who rode a bike to work, and referred to him using a shortened version of M.G.'s first name.

Investigators failed in 'very basics'

A forensic investigator from Snowflake Place, now known as Toba Centre — a non-profit that works with children affected by abuse — also interviewed the child. A Winnipeg police officer was present, and gave her a photo lineup. At one point, the officer took two photos out of the lineup and showed them to the girl side by side, which is against best practices, according to Dunlop's decision.

The girl "said that the one photo looked like the staff [member], but gestured that he had facial hair," the decision said.

But the man had provided court with two photos of himself around the time of the alleged assault that showed he did not have facial hair then.

"Even if I accept the flawed procedure used for the lineup, the photographs of M. that he tendered as exhibits explicitly show him a few days before the date of the alleged offence with no facial hair," Dunlop's decision said.

The judge pointed to other inconsistencies in the girl's testimony that she said investigators should have looked into, but didn't, displaying "a single-minded focus from the very beginning by essentially accepting at face value the allegations."

She said among other things, investigators could have seen the room at the group home where the alleged assault occurred was "wide open for all to see," with large windows and video cameras placed all around the area, and that the girl's description of the room did not match it.

The police officer who was ANCR's witness in the proceedings "believed that the assault took place in the management office," Dunlop said.

"In fairness to her, no other investigator knew or seemed to care where the alleged assault could have occurred because they did not go to the group home, or they simply did not ask the question."

The judge said investigators also failed to establish when the assault could have occurred, failing to do "very basics" like review the group home's logbooks.

The investigators admitted they failed to follow best practices, Dunlop's decision said.

She said she believed the child may have been sexually assaulted before the allegations and doesn't believe she fabricated the evidence, but that it was clear the child "had been influenced about what to say."

The judge said the girl's description of events may have also been affected by a mental health crisis she was going through at the time.

"As much as the investigators owed a duty to the child, they did so just as much to M.  As a result of their failures, the consequences on M.'s life were significant," she said.

"They also impacted another child, M.'s daughter, who was without her father for several years while this matter unfolded. We, as a society, owe both the child and M. more."