Nunavut court: Kimmirut teacher alleged to have fondled boy at cabin

The trial of Philip Flynn, a former Kimmirut teacher accused of sexually abusing a young make student between 1999 and 2004, continues June 10 at the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit. (FILE PHOTO)

After chaperoning a group of high school boys to a secluded cabin, a former Kimmirut teacher is alleged to have fondled one of those boys and then tried to bribe the boy into silence.

That’s what Justice Andy Mahar heard on the first day of Philip Flynn’s judge-alone trial at the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit June 9.

Flynn faces two sexual abuse charges — one count of sexual assault and one count of sexual exploitation — stemming from a single incident alleged by a single male complainant to have occurred between 1999 and 2004.

At the time, Flynn taught in Kimmirut and was guidance counsellor to the complainant, who was a student at the same school.

Kimmirut RCMP charged Flynn in April 2013, after taking two statements from the complainant, whose identity may not be published or broadcast.

Mahar noted that dated sexual abuse cases often involve gaps in the complainant’s memory, resulting in rough date estimates.

“The span of time in question is not an essential element… in this case,” Mahar said.

The complainant testified for the entire day June 9.

The complainant, who was in Grade 10 or Grade 11 at the time, said in court that Flynn invited him and three or four other male students to a cabin outside Kimmirut.

The complainant said that in the past he had been on similar trips with Flynn.

The former teacher brought a mickey of alcohol for the boys, the witness said, and told the complainant to lie to the other boys about where the alcohol came from.

After running around and having fun, the boys fell asleep in the cabin.

But after waking up between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. the next morning, the complainant said he was “fondled” from behind by Flynn as the student lay in bed on his right side.

“The first thing I remember is Philip Flynn asking me if I was hungover. Then I remember him laughing. Then he reached over and put his hand inside my shorts and touched me, touched my penis,” the witness said.

The fondling lasted “a couple of seconds” and ended when the complainant “tried to push [Flynn’s] arm away,” the court heard.

When asked to describe the fondling, the witness made a gesture which Mahar called “a stroking motion.”

“I was angry that he touched my penis,” the witness said.

“I had chills running down my back.”

The boys returned home with the teacher the following day.

Between six and 12 months after the incident, the complainant said he told a group of friends about the incident.

Shortly after that, he saw Flynn at the local airport and gave his guidance counsellor a “mean look” out of anger.

Flynn called up the witness later that day and invited him over for “a little chat,” the complainant said.

When the youth told Flynn that he had told some other kids about the fondling incident, the complainant said Flynn began to cry and pace back and forth with a “panicky” look in his eyes.

“[Flynn] said if I tell the police, his career will end,” the witness told Mahar.

Flynn then gave the complainant $50, instructing the youth to tell his friends not to say anything. If the youth did that, Flynn promised to buy him airplane tickets to Iqaluit, the complainant testified.

It wasn’t until March and April of 2013 that the witness said he filed two statements with local RCMP about the incident.

In cross-examination, defence lawyer Paul Falvo focused on the complainant’s relationship with Flynn before and after the alleged incident.

The witness testified that he had a friendship with Flynn that lasted for about 10 years after the alleged incident, that he had been to the same cabin with the teacher between five and 10 times before the incident allegedly took place, and that Flynn continued to act as his guidance counsellor after the alleged incident.

Their friendship included watching movies, playing games and having supper at Flynn’s house — sometimes with friends, other times alone.

Sometimes, the teacher would serve the student alcohol, the complainant testified.

The complainant rebuffed any suggestion from Falvo that the “touching incident” was misinterpreted.

“Is it possible the touch was over your clothes?” Falvo asked the witness.

“No,” the witness replied.

“Is it possible the touch was [Flynn] hugging you?” the lawyer asked.

“No,” the complainant said.

“Is it possible [Flynn] was just patting you the way guys pat each other sometimes?”

“No, that’s not possible.”

The witness also said the touching could not have been an accident.

Falvo is expected to continue his cross-examination of the complainant at 9:30 a.m. at the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit June 10.

The trial is scheduled to wrap up June 10.