Witness: accused Nunavut teacher put kids in detention, then molested them

Two more complainants alleging sex crimes by former Sanikiluaq teacher Johnny Meeko wrapped up their testimony Aug. 18 at the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit, during the second day of Meeko’s trial.

That’s in addition to two complainants who testified before Justice Neil Sharkey on the first day of the judge-alone trial, scheduled to last two weeks.

Clear patterns are emerging from the testimony of the first four Crown witnesses, all of whom are now adult women.

All four complainants, for example, testified that Meeko touched their chests over their clothes in separate incidents when each of them attended Grade 3 at Nuiyak Elementary School sometime between 1972 and 2007.

The complainants would have been about eight years old at the time.

Each of the first four witnesses also testified that Meeko told them their chests would “grow bigger,” either with time or by his touching.

And three of the four women told Sharkey that Meeko gave them detention, after which he then molested them.

Police arrested Meeko, 60, in August 2012 after receiving numerous statements alleging sexual misconduct by Meeko from former students.

Meeko faces a total of 32 charges alleged to have occurred while he taught in Sanikiluaq between 1972 and 2007, including nine counts of sexually touching someone under 14 years old, 12 counts of sexual assault and two counts of rape.

The second witness on Aug. 18 — the fourth in the trial — said Meeko used sexual advances as a form of punishment in his classroom.

“He used to say that if the last person finishes, they will get a kiss, a kiss from Johnny,” the witness said during Crown prosecutor Amy Porteous’s examination in chief.

“Did Johnny ever kiss you?” Porteous asked.

“Once,” the complainant answered.

“Where did that happen?”

“On the lips.”

“How long did he kiss you for?”

“About five seconds.”

“Were there other kids around?”

“Yea.”

“How did they react?”

“They were laughing. They thought it was funny.”

“How’d that make you feel?” the prosecutor asked.

The complainant only shook her head, drew her lips back in a tight line and fought to hold back tears.

Both witnesses who testified Aug. 18 spoke so softly that much of what they said was inaudible in the gallery, where three women sat behind Meeko.

“We all know what you’re saying is difficult to say, and breaking down, well it’s just part of life,” Sharkey told one of the witnesses Aug. 18, as she fought back tears.

But when he asked the complainant if she wanted a break, the witness said no, “I just want to get this over [with].”

Meeko’s lawyer, James Morton, seems to be following a pattern in his cross-examination of the witnesses as well.

Morton asked each of the first four complainants about alleged incidents of sexual misconduct by Meeko that were witnessed by others.

The second witness to testify Aug. 18, for example, told Sharkey that Meeko would hold her back from gym class, along with other students, for not finishing her work.

That happened regularly, the witness said, and so did Meeko’s touching of her chest.

“Almost every day you were kept back, Johnny touched your chest, correct?” Morton asked the witness.

“Yea,” she answered.

“In front of other students?” the lawyer asked.

“Yes,” the witness said.

“He didn’t try to hide it?”

“He didn’t try to hide it.”

But the same witness also testified that Meeko would cover at least one of the classroom’s three windows with paper when the alleged groping occurred.

On Aug. 17, Morton asked the trial’s first witness if anybody tried to intervene during the more than 100 groping incidents the witness accused Meeko of inflicting on her in public.

“That’s what people are used to seeing, him grabbing women… that’s what we’ve known him [to] do all our lives,” the witness said.

Morton also asked all four complainants how much gossip they heard about Meeko at the time of his arrest, and if the complainants had talked about the case to each other.

For example, Meeko asked the first witness on the stand Aug. 18, “You took the same special charter flight to Iqaluit as seven of the other complainants, right?”

“Yes,” the witness said.

“And you’re all staying at the same hotel?” Morton asked.

“Yes,” said the complainant.

“On the flight down or in the hotel, did you talk about the case?”

“No,” the witness said. All four witnesses gave Morton the same answer.

The fifth complainant took the stand in the late afternoon of Aug. 18.

Crown prosecutor Priscilla Ferrazzi had told Sharkey Aug. 17 that the Crown plans on calling nine complainants to testify, as well as two RCMP officers.

Morton told Nunatsiaq News that the trial is likely to adjourn for a few weeks after this segment of the trial ends Aug. 21.