Man posing as outreach worker guilty of sexually assaulting troubled teen

Judge says offender ‘pretended to care’ about victim to win his trust

A Vancouver man who held himself out to be an outreach worker has been convicted of sexually assaulting an at-risk youth.

Charles Michael Kavanagh, who has a prior record of sex offences against youths, was on Friday also found guilty of trafficking in methamphetamines and marijuana and of breaching a court order banning him from having contact with anyone under age 16.

The trial in B.C. Supreme Court heard that the youth, who started using drugs at age 12 and became addicted to meth at 13, had stopped going to school, got into trouble with the law, and became estranged from his family.

Shortly after the vulnerable boy was placed in foster care, the accused, who didn’t know him, contacted him through Facebook and began communicating with him.

In May 2015, they met at a park close to the teen’s foster home, where the two smoked crystal meth provided by Kavanagh, who befriended the teen.

When the teen, who cannot be identified due to a publication ban, was arrested for returning home late to his foster home, the accused contacted him, calling himself the boy’s uncle and commiserating with him.

At first the teen thought of the accused as family, seeing him three to four times a week, with Kavanagh supplying him with crystal meth and marijuana.

The teen continued to struggle with his drug problem and was in an out of foster homes. At some point, Kavanagh convinced the teen to start selling drugs for him.

In reaching her verdict, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Murray said that Kavanagh knew the teen was suffering from a drug problem and tried to take over his life.

“He gave him money and drugs. He had (the teen) trafficking. He never asked for the money that (the teen) made. He messaged him constantly. The messages are like a desperately jealous teenager.”

The judge noted that Kavanagh had the teen over to a boarding house, despite the fact he wasn’t allowed to have visitors under age 19.

Kavanagh held himself out to be an outreach worker to the teen’s father and to the teen’s foster parents, said the judge.

“He knew how worried (the teen)’s father was, but he lied repeatedly to him, pretending that he was helping him and that he cared. He led on like he was (the teen)’s saviour. He was the opposite. Clearly he was grooming (the teen).”

The judge accepted the teen’s evidence that in July 2016, when he was 15 and his drug problem was threatening to spiral out of control, Kavanagh performed oral sex on the teen at the accused’s boarding house in downtown Vancouver.

The defence argued the teen was an admitted liar and that it was dangerous to rely on his evidence, but the judge said she found him to be a credible, honest and straightforward witness.

Murray noted that, when he testified about the sex assault, the teen was visibly uncomfortable, saying as little as possible and clearly embarrassed and ashamed.

“He could hardly talk about it. The emotions he showed were real. He cried.”

Crown counsel Michaela Donnelly is considering applying to have Kavanagh declared a dangerous offender.

In September 2003, Kavanagh, then 45, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for sexually assaulting two youths on Vancouver Island.

One of the victims he had sexually assaulted up to 500 times over a 21/2-year period when the boy was 14-16 years old. Most of the assaults were acts of oral sex Kavanagh performed on the victim.

Kavanagh’s next court appearance is June 27.