Police charge six students in alleged sex assault
The shocking nature of what allegedly happened and was videoed at St. Michael’s College School, one of the oldest private boys’ schools in the country, was underlined Monday when six students accused of among other charges gang sexual assault made their first appearance in Toronto youth court.
That they are of “tender years,” as judges sometimes put it, was painfully evident on their faces as various emotions played across them.
The six are 14 and 15 years old and in Grade 9 or 10.
With that astonishing range of size peculiar to adolescents of that age, they were both tall and short, heavy-set and tiny, shattered and cocky. Two wore jackets or suits.
One appeared to sport braces.
Several hung their heads when they saw their parents in the courtroom or when the details of
POLICE EXAMINING CLAIMS OF SEX ATTACKS, OTHER ASSAULTS AT PRIVATE SCHOOL
the alleged incident — these are under a mandatory publication ban imposed by the Youth Criminal Justice Act, as are the boys’ identities — were read out for Ontario Court Justice of the Peace Esther Daniel by Crown attorney Erin McNamara.
Others seemed shell-shocked. One boy shook his head “No.”
Each of the six, Toronto police said at an earlier news conference, is accused of assault, gang sexual assault and sexual assault with a weapon in connection with an attack that occurred in a team locker-room at the school.
The victim, as the National Post reported Saturday, had entered the dressing room simply to ask a friend for a ride home.
That friend changed and left, and it was then the boys allegedly set upon the victim, pulling off his pants, holding him down as two different boys allegedly attacked him with the handle of a broomstick.
Video of the attack surfaced on social media. All the accused boys — among the six are two boys who allegedly used the broomstick on the victim, others who allegedly assaulted him or held him down, and the alleged videographer — were released with the Crown’s consent into their parents’ custody for surety bails of either $5,000 or $7,000.
One mother wept as she answered the standard questions from the JP. Other parents appeared shaken.
They represented a typical slice of modern Toronto, hailing from the suburbs and downtown both.
McNamara told the JP that while she thought “detention would be available” because of the grievous nature of the charges, she was satisfied the public will be properly protected by their bail conditions, which include no access to social media and a do-not-contact clause that prohibits them talking to one another, the victim or certain school officials.
For all the accused boys, it was their first contact with the criminal justice system. All were represented by separate lawyers in court.
Toronto Police Insp. Dominic Sinopoli, head of sex crimes, said the force now has opened multiple investigations into alleged incidents at the 166-yearold Catholic school — two of assault and two of sexual assault, including the one where the six are charged.
Sinopoli said the other sexual assault predates the one where charges have been laid.
Five of the boys turned themselves into police, with either parents or lawyers or both at their sides, on Monday. A sixth, not one of the eight students St. Mike’s expelled last week, was arrested on his way to school.
The alleged victims were different boys in each case, meaning there are at least four of them.
The alleged four attacks all occurred, Sinopoli said, “this school year.” He told reporters, “we have reason to believe there are more videos and potentially more incidents.”
The first of the attacks to surface did so on Monday, Nov. 12, when school officials received a video of a hazing incident that involved a student being bullied and soaked in a bathroom.
As St. Mike’s principal Greg Reeves began an internal investigation into that incident, he also contacted 13 Division to seek police advice on how to handle it. According to Sinopoli, Reeves was advised to tell the alleged victim if he believed he was assaulted, he should come forward to police.
That same evening, St. Mike’s officials received video of the second incident, the locker-room sexual assault.
The school conducted its own internal investigation into both incidents the next day, Nov. 13, and identified and interviewed all students involved.
Meantime, on Nov. 14 police received media inquiries about video of the alleged sexual assault appearing on social media. They sent an officer to the school.
The officer met with the principal, who then handed over the video of the alleged locker-room sex assault.
On Nov. 16 the school learned of a third incident on video — this is the other sexual assault.
Reeves has said in multiple interviews and statements that he didn’t notify police about the first alleged sexual assault on Monday because the victim hadn’t yet told his parents.
St. Mike’s has also announced a “Respect and Culture Review” to examine such “unacceptable behaviours at St. Michael’s, now and in the past” and take definite steps to make “visible” that which has been “invisible.”
The delay in notifying police is part of, but not the focus of, the police investigation, Sinopoli said, and though he declined comment “on this part of the investigation,” when he was asked directly if he believes it should have been reported on Nov. 12, he replied, “Yes.”
The six boys are due back in court Dec. 19.