Province settles with man who was sexually abused by social worker

A man who was lured from the Mount Cashel orphanage, plied with alcohol and sexually abused by a social worker entrusted to care for him when he was 15 has reached a $750,000 settlement with the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, his lawyer said Thursday.

Lawyer Lynn Moore said the province admitted liability for the 1986 abuse and has agreed to pay $750,000 to the man, who is now in his 40s and has suffered a range of mental-health disorders linked to the assault.

She said her client, referred to as John Doe in court documents, is relieved the government acknowledged its responsibility in a case involving what she said was a gross violation of trust for a young person in the care of child welfare officials.

“Our client has been deeply impacted by this abuse,” Moore said in an interview from her office in St. John’s. “It has affected all areas all of his life and he has suffered significantly, but he is also an incredibly resilient individual.

“I’m hoping this is a fresh start for him.”

Moore said her client was a ward of the province from about 1979 to 1991 and was placed in various foster homes before being sent to the orphanage when he was 15.

In a statement of claim filed in May 2016, Moore describes how he was living with his mother in 1986 when the arrangement broke down and he was told he would move to Mount Cashel.

Moore said a social worker assigned by the province to help with the transition developed a relationship with him, driving him around in his sports car and gaining his trust. Moore said the social worker, who has since died, took the teen to his own home and repeatedly sexually assaulted him.

“The social worker … basically groomed him and developed a level of trust with our client and then lured him into his own home, plied him with alcohol and sexually abused him in a really invasive way,” she said.

The abuse took place over the course of one night, but Moore says the incident has haunted the man throughout his life.

“He did not achieve educationally, because of mentalhealth issues, what he could have achieved,” she said. “He has been diagnosed with PTSD, social anxiety disorder and a major depressive disorder.”

She said he decided to come forward with a claim in 2016 after struggling at work and linking those troubles to his abuse.

Moore filed an application last March to have the government declared liable, arguing the province failed in its responsibility to care for the young man. That case was heard last October, when the province consented to the application and agreed it was liable.

Moore said they arrived at the settlement last month.

The notorious Mount Cashel orphanage was run by the Christian Brothers, a Roman Catholic lay order, and former residents have said they were verbally, sexually and physically abused as far back as the 1940s. The orphanage was closed in 1990 and torn down two years later.