Witness alleges teacher forced “fake sex” in Nunavut classroom

Johnny Meeko, currently facing 32 historic sex charges from when he was a teacher in Sanikiluaq between 1984 and 2006, leaves the Iqaluit courthouse Aug. 17 on the first day of his trial. (PHOTO BY THOMAS ROHNER)

Former Sanikiluaq teacher Johnny Meeko forced a Grade 3 student to have “fake sex” with him and tried to show that student how to perform oral sex, a complainant testified on the first day of Meeko’s trial in Iqaluit Aug. 17.

The “fake sex,” the complainant explained to Justice Neil Sharkey at the Nunavut Court of Justice, involved being forced by Meeko to lie on her back in the classroom — while clothed — and having Meeko lie on top of her while he rubbed his hard penis on her body.

“One time he told me to do a blowjob, but I didn’t know how to. He told me how,” the complainant testified, miming the gestures she said Meeko showed her.

“I couldn’t and started crying.”

There are nine complainants in this case — eight female and one male — and their identities are protected by a court order.

Police arrested Meeko, 60, in August 2012 after launching an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.

Meeko now faces 32 charges, many of which are historical sex offences against children and youth alleged to have occurred at Nuiyak Elementary School in Sanikiluaq between 1972 and 2007.

Those charges — brought forward by former students of Meeko’s — include nine counts of sexually touching children under the age of 14 and 12 counts of sexual assault.

The complainant who alleged Meeko requested oral sex and forced her to have “fake sex” with him, told Sharkey that her teacher would give her detention for being a bully, but then sexually abuse her.

“He used to take my pants off and stare at me, stare at my vagina,” she testified, adding sometimes Meeko told her to take her underwear off.

Other times, Meeko would rub her crotch through her pants, the witness said in a strained voice, wiping away tears.

Crown prosecutor Priscilla Ferrazzi asked the witness if she told others about the abuse.

“I told [my mother that] Johnny’s been doing that to me, and she said, ‘he’s a nice person, I know he’s not doing that.’ She didn’t believe me,” the witness answered.

It wasn’t until the police knocked on the witness’s door during their July 2012 investigation that the woman said she started talking about the abuse.

“I was not going to tell no one about it, but I keep being mad and hurt, my feelings. That’s why I started talking.”

Ferrazzi asked the witness if she planned on suing Meeko for money.

“Has any lawyer contacted you about getting money for what Johnny Meeko did to you?” Ferrazzi asked.

“No,” the witness answered.

“Have you contacted a lawyer for the same reason?”

“No.”

But Meeko’s defence lawyer, James Morton, told Sharkey the complainant’s testimony at trial changed compared to her testimony at a preliminary inquiry into the allegations held in July 2013 in Sanikiluaq.

In July 2013, for example, Morton pointed out that the witness couldn’t remember if the fake sex episode had happened.

“Your memory of what happened all those years ago is a bit uncertain, isn’t it?” Morton asked.

“Yes,” the witness said.

But Ferrazzi shot back that during the preliminary inquiry, the witness felt more vulnerable.

“When you were at the preliminary hearing in Sanikiluaq… was the court set up differently than here?” Ferrazzi asked.

“Yes,” the witness said quickly.

“Were you able to see Johnny?”

“Yes,” the witness said, looking over at the screen in front of Meeko which served to hide her alleged abuser from view.

“Were you able to see his family from where you were telling the story of what he did to you?” Ferrazzi asked.

“Yes,” the witness answered promptly.

But Morton was able to point out an inconsistency between the first two witnesses of the trial, both of whom gave evidence before Sharkey Aug. 17.

The first witness testified that “all the girls who went to school knew” about Meeko’s abusive behaviour, and that he abused her “more than 100 times” outside of school, in public.

The second witness, on the other hand, told Morton that Meeko was careful not to let anyone know about the abuse.

“People didn’t know Johnny was doing this, right?” Morton asked the second witness.

“Yes.”

Morton asked the first witness why, if she had been abused more than 100 times in public, somebody didn’t stop or report Meeko.

“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.

The second day of the trial begins Aug. 18 at 9:30 a.m. at the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit. Justice Sharkey is hearing the case alone, without a jury.