Sex assault baffles doctor

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Sex assault baffles doctor

By Elisabeth Johns
Cornwall Standard Freehder
Front Page – Friday, April 07, 2006 @ 10:00

Dr. John Bradford has seen thousands of sexual assault cases but never quite one like this.

Police charged a 17-year-old Cornwall boy Wednesday with sexually assaulting a middle-aged man on several occasions over a period of two months.

“That is bizarre,” said Bradford, chief forensic psychiatrist for the Royal Ottawa Hospital and an expert on sexual offenders.

assaulted while visiting the youth at his home

The youth was also charged with uttering a threat. The 42-year-old man, an acquaintance, was sexually assaulted while visiting the youth at his home. 

The incidences occurred over a period of two months, between January and February of this year. It was reported to the police March 9.

“This is much more likely to be an equal relationship, compared to pedophilia,” Bradford said. Relationships are not equal in cases of pedophilia, in which the perpetrator is older, usually at least 20 years old, and the victim is much younger.

That the victim would have returned to the perpetrator’s home on several occasions in this particular case suggests that there was a relationship, Bradford said.

“The young male might have been experimenting sexually,” he said.

“But the question is why would the man continue going back?” Bradford asked. “But this is unusual. I can’t think of another case where that has come up.”

Bradford has seen cases where young males have sexually assaulted older men, and in those cases the young males have both assaulted and attacked the men. Some perpetrators were eventually charged with assault, attempted murder and even murder, he said.

“something missing”

“Sexual assault implies that he didn’t consent and yet he comes back there is something missing,” he said.

Not only is it quite rare that an older adult is charging a young male with sexual assault, but it is also much more difficult for the older adult victim to admit, said Antoine Quenneville of the Men’s Project in Ottawa.

“The hesitation to come forward is greater, especially in a small town like Cornwall, where everyone knows everyone else,” said Quenneville. “Then there is the added barrier of admitting that it’s a 17-year-old who did this.”

The youth is expected to appear in court April 27.

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