CORNWALL PUBLIC INQUIRY

Cornwall Standard Freeholder

11 October 2008

Posted By TREVOR PRITCHARD

 A lawyer representing sexual abuse victims at the Cornwall Public Inquiry accused a former Children's Aid Society caseworker of "trying to revise history" during his three days on the stand.

Dallas Lee suggested it was impossible Bryan Keough had "moderate and reasonable" views on the use of corporal punishment, given the types of punishment that allegedly happened in the group homes run by the CAS in the 1970s.

"I'm going to suggest that you knew exactly was going on in these homes, you knew exactly what was being doled out as punishment," said Lee. "Is that true?"

"It is not," said Keough.

Yesterday was Keough's final day on the stand at the inquiry, which is probing how institutions like the CAS handled allegations of historical sexual abuse.

The inquiry has heard abuse allegations from multiple former CAS wards -including that at one now-closed Second Street group home - children were beaten, forced to perform chores in their underwear, and sexually abused.

"I would never have said that," said Keough. "Not even in a moment of anger."

In 2001, Keough told an OPP investigator he couldn't recall C-14 -even though it was his own decision to close the foster home.

When Lee asked how that was possible, Keough said he resigned from the CAS under "very traumatic" circumstances, including allegations he routinely physically and sexually children at the Second Street home.

"I tried as much as possible to put everything behind me, because of the way I left the agency," Keough told Lee. "Nothing came to my mind."

City police investigated the allegations twice but never charged Keough.

Lee also asked Keough about a Maxville home, where young girls frequently told the CAS they were being abused by the foster father.

A CAS report from 1978 stated the agency had doubts about the complaints because the wards in the home were "very promiscuous, disturbed, or (had) behaviour problems."

Lee asked Keough whether the CAS had "dropped the ball" in the 1970s by not closing the home sooner.

Keough could only reply that by the 1980s, the complaints would have been investigated more thoroughly.

"I'm looking back with a whole pile of other knowledge and training," said Keough. "We did the best we could."

The inquiry resumes Oct. 14.

One word comes to mind in the case of this individual on the stand (LIAR)