17 October 2008

Posted By TREVOR PRITCHARD

The former executive director of the Children's Aid Society twice suggested accusations of sexual abuse leveled against a foster family's son not be investigated by police, the Cornwall Public Inquiry heard Thursday.

Documents entered into evidence during the testimony of retired CAS supervisor Ian MacLean showed that Thomas O'Brien twice told the Crown attorney's office -first in December 1982, and then in April 1983 - that he didn't feel allegations against Brian Lapensee were serious enough to lay charges.

"I did not (share) those opinions," said MacLean, who spent three decades with the local CAS branch before leaving in 2006.

In 1982, teenage girls at the family's group home in Martintown started complaining that Lapensee, then in his early 20s, would grab their breasts while they watched television and played cards.

After interviewing the girls, MacLean and another caseworker compiled a report which concluded that "many if not all, and perhaps more, of these incidents did occur."

MacLean told lead commission counsel Peter Engelmann that he and the other caseworker disagreed with their boss and felt Lapensee should have been charged.

"And what did you do to try and see that that happened?" asked Engelmann.

"Well, we reported back to Mr. O'Brien. And that was the practice, apparently, at that time," said MacLean. "We did it this time, and we did it the next time as well."

That "next time" was in the following April, after another foster child in the home, Roberta Archambault, accused Lapensee of groping her and making unwanted sexual comments during an Easter visit.

After learning of the allegation, O'Brien wrote the Crown attorney's office, saying it wasn't necessary to charge Lapensee because all the girls had been placed in new homes and Lapensee's alleged sexual advances were not "too serious."

The CAS closed the Lapensee home a few months later.

In 2006, Archambault took the stand at the inquiry, which is looking at how institutions like the CAS reacted to allegations of historical sexual abuse. She testified Lapensee began abusing her three months after she arrived at the home in late 1980, and that the abuse included fondling and forced oral sex.

Lapensee has never been convicted of those allegations.

During MacLean's cross-examination, Citizens for Community Renewal lawyer Juda Strawczynski showed MacLean statements he'd given in 1994 to a Cornwall Police Service officer who was investigating an unrelated allegation of abuse at another foster home.

According to the officer's notes, MacLean said the agency's philosophy was still in the "closet stages" in the 1970s, when it came to investigating sexual abuse. CAS wards were considered "troubled individuals" whose allegations were not to be taken at face value, the notes said.

Strawczynski argued that philosophy was still in place in the 1980s when the alleged abuse in the Lapensee home came to light.

"What I'm going to suggest to you here, sir, is that similarly, the institution of the Children's Aid Society wished at this time to keep these things as quiet as possible," he said.

Not true, said MacLean: not only did O'Brien go to the Crown attorney, but he also informed his superiors in the provincial government of the allegations.

MacLean's cross-examination continues this morning.

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #1 By nodegamra

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #2 By FreetheChildren

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #3 By dodger

Go to the CAS office on Boundary Road during a normal week day from monday to friday look at how many cars are in that parking lot. I counted 64 cars the other day. Does that tell you how busy these people are It is an industry because they make money from the misery of children and their families. Yes there are cases where the CAS should definitely be involved. But not all cases are handled properly and are bungled very badly at the expense of the family and the children.

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #11 By dodger,