Witness tells of his painful childhood

The 34-year-old plaintiff in a two-week-long civil trial against the Yukon government described a childhood filled with sexual abuse, drug and alcohol addiction and self-inflicted wounds when he took the witness stand Friday.

The plaintiff, who cannot be named under a Yukon Supreme Court-ordered publication ban, testified he was sexually abused by a janitor, a family friend, his school principal and a babysitter as he was growing up.

The principal and the babysitter, who was a ward of the state until she reached the age of 18, are both defendants in the case.

The sexual abuse began when he was about four years old, the plaintiff testified.

“All the memories are coming back,” he said on the stand.

He described being “fondled through my clothes” and having his rectum digitally penetrated by the family friend.
In school, said the plaintiff, the principal began abusing him in Grade 1.

“I was too terrified to tell anyone about it. I didn’t even want to admit to myself that it was happening,” he told the courtroom.

Defence counsel John Henderson asked why the plaintiff never reported the abuse.

He replied:"I was too scared to say anything to anybody.

He was the boss of the school and the boss of my world at the time. Who was I to report it to?”

When Henderson suggested the abuse had in fact not occurred at all, the plaintiff said, “You’re wrong. He did abuse me and it will stick with me for the rest of my life.

“There’s other kids that he took into that closet,” he added.

When he was 13 years old, the plaintiff said he attempted suicide by hanging himself in the basement of his parents’ home.

The attempt failed because the rope broke, he said.

“I’ve made a few attempts to slash my wrists,” he testified.

The plaintiff said by the time he was 16, he had “given up.”

“I thought of myself as a low-down piece of s--- that’s never going to amount to anything. No one cared, so why should I try?” he asked.

The plaintiff said he began cutting himself, burning himself with cigarettes, and ripping off his own toenails when he was in high school. He continues to do so to this day, he said.

“Physical pain is addictive once you start using it,” he testified. “It felt good to feel something other than that panic and anxiety.”

The plaintiff said stress makes him resort to self-inflicted physical pain and substance use even more.

Before the trial, he said, “I burned myself pretty good.”

The plaintiff said that once the trial is over, he plans to go on a drug and alcohol binge to “get this s--- out of my head.”

The plaintiff said he would like to recover but has “a problem making commitments.” He has never attended Alcoholics Anonymous nor any other type of
addiction treatment program.

The trial resumed this morning and will continue this week.

Justice John Richard is presiding, with Dan Shier representing the Crown.