St. John's man charged with sexual assault has history of allegations involving minors
One alleged victim says he told police decades ago, but nothing was done
The news hit Shawn like a straight shot to the stomach.
Billy Howse had been arrested. He was accused of sexually assaulting a young man. He was being held in custody pending a bail hearing.
Shawn's mind immediately went to a phone call he'd made nearly 20 years ago, the frigid response he says he got from the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary, and the sting of rejection that pushed him further into misery.
But this news gave him a renewed sense of purpose.
"I will do whatever I can to help with this case," Shawn — not his real name — told CBC Investigates.
"I'm happy this kid got an answer from them. Whoever it is. I'm happy they got the right response from the RNC."
Still, his mind sometimes wanders to some painful questions. If the allegations are true, what could have been avoided if the police had listened to him all those years ago?
"It's a sin. All this time … I can imagine how many people."
Who is Billy Howse?
Little is known about Billy Howse's current charges.
The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary issued a news release on April 17, saying the 57-year-old had been arrested following a complaint from a young man a month earlier.
Neighbours in the area of Howse's home on Barnes Road in St. John's told CBC Investigates that Howse had young men coming and going from his place. One said Howse would sometimes throw them out, causing a ruckus on the sidewalk beneath his second-storey window.
That window was smashed when CBC Investigates paid a visit in late April.
A roommate living in Howse's residence — who declined to give her name — said a brick was thrown through the window in the days after Howse's arrest. The door was also busted open, she said, and the apartment was ransacked.
Howse had a series of brief court appearances in the days following his arrest.
He was sent for a psychiatric evaluation, before considering the option of a bail supervision program at his next appearance. He opted to remain in custody on remand while his matter worked its way through the courts.
Then, on May 20, Howse was charged with a second count of sexual assault. According to court documents, the allegation shares the same date as the first charge, but with a different complainant.
Howse remains in custody, and is due back in court July 2 for a status update.
CBC Investigates provided his lawyer, Ellen O'Gorman, with a detailed list of the allegations in this story. O'Gorman declined comment on Howse's behalf.
Family says they made multiple complaints to police
The image of Howse walking through the courthouse, cuffed at the hands and feet, is something Shawn thought he'd never see.
Shawn — whose name CBC agreed to withhold due to privacy concerns — said he was around 11 years old when he first met Billy Howse in downtown St. John's around 1998. At the time, Howse was 30.
"I was just out beating the streets, you know. I was a bit wild at a young age, I guess, and I started hanging around the downtown area when my house was up in the Mundy Pond area."
Shawn said Howse gave kids his age a place to go, and provided them with marijuana and alcohol.
Soon after he started hanging out there, Shawn said he was sexually assaulted by Howse.
"I ended up passing out in the bed, and then he was in the bed with me," he said.
When asked how many times it happened, Shawn said: "I could probably count it on both hands, or probably a bit more."
Shawn's siblings have vivid memories of those days.
His older brother remembers going around with their mother in a blue minivan in September of 1999, knocking on doors and looking for her son. He remembers knocking on Howse's door, and seeing Shawn sneak out the back door.
Shawn's brother recalls his mother being worried Howse was giving her son alcohol and taking advantage of him. He remembers going to the police station the next day with his mother.
"[Mom] was screeching and asking for help," Shawn's brother recalled. "And they basically told her there's nothing we can do, there's no evidence."
Shawn's sister said she remembers going to the police station with her mother on another occasion to report her suspicions about Howse. She said her mother was turned away in that instance, too.
Their mother has since died.
Neither sibling remembers who they spoke to at RNC headquarters, but both say they didn't make it beyond the front desk. Neither remembers any follow-up conversations.
While Shawn was a troubled child, his siblings said Shawn's behaviour began to spiral after the alleged abuse. There were many trips to the youth correctional centre at Whitbourne — known locally as the Boys' Home — and a federal prison sentence for robbery when he was 18.
"It ruined his life completely, and it all started with Billy Howse," his sister said.
Shawn agrees.
"Right after that the drug use got a lot worse. I started shooting up by the time I was 13, 14. Back and forth to the Boys' Home flat out. Just to numb everything, I guess."
He recalls being on remand around 2006, awaiting his federal sentence, and feeling like he was at the end of his rope. He was on the phone with his sister one day, when she convinced him to take a big step.
"I finally got him to call the cops and report what happened to him when he was a young boy," his sister told CBC Investigates.
She put her brother on hold and called the police station, then patched them together in a three-way call.
"I said I want to report a sexual assault when I was a minor," Shawn recalls. "They asked me how old I was then and how old I am now, and they pretty much said there's nothing we can do about it, because it's such a long time."
His sister remembers hearing the same thing.
"He was shot down. He was told it's too late, there's nothing we can do for you, and pretty much that was it."
Police fielded multiple prior complaints, court documents show
Shawn remembers something else about that call. He said the officer told him he wasn't the first person to complain about Billy Howse.
His sister doesn't recall anyone saying that, but said it could be true – noting her brother would remember the conversation better than she does.
Whether it was said on that phone call or not, CBC Investigates has confirmed Shawn's complaint was not the first.
A criminal record check shows Howse was convicted of sexual assault in 1988.
"Mr. Howse reports the encounter as being consensual," reads a filing from an unrelated court case.
Those records also show there were two other police investigations — one in 2000-2001 and one in 2004 — where Howse was accused of sexually assaulting minors. Neither investigation resulted in charges.
Shawn and his family are adamant those cases do not involve them, as neither Shawn's complaint nor his mother's yielded any follow-up from police.
It all leaves him wondering why the police didn't take him more seriously.
"Where I was after being in trouble with the law, I thought maybe they just didn't care about me, and [they] probably didn't care about me when I was a kid," he said.
"And it just felt, like, hopeless, pretty much, that anything was going to come from this with him. I thought he was going to get away with it forever."
In a statement, RNC spokesperson Danielle Barron said the force cannot comment on Shawn's allegations or confirm previous attempts to file a complaint.
She encouraged him, and anyone else with allegations involving Howse, to come forward and speak with investigators.
"The investigation remains active, and the RNC believes there are other survivors," Barron wrote. "Anyone with information is urged to contact the RNC."
Shawn said he can't bring himself to call the police again, but he plans to have a lawyer contact them on his behalf.
"I don't want to speak to them," he said. "No offence, but I've got no time for the cops. They never had no time for me."
After spending his adult life battling feelings of guilt and shame, Shawn has a message for the young man who came forward this spring — hoping he can avoid similar struggles in the future.
"Don't worry. There's nothing wrong with you. You're perfectly normal. There's something wrong with these guys that do this. Not us."
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