Convicted molester awaits sentencing
Former Inuvik educator was giving driving lesson to 13-year-old boy when he assaulted him in 1978
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Monday, April 27, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A former educator in Inuvik awaits his fate following a sentencing hearing last week that heard how he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old boy while giving him a driving lesson more than 35 years ago.
David Button, 69, is to be sentenced in Yellowknife May 7 after pleading guilty to indecent assault before NWT Supreme Court Justice Karan Shaner March 5. He was acquitted on a second charge of indecent assault.
There is a publication ban on any evidence that could reveal the identity of the victim. Court heard the victim did not report the assault to RCMP until 2010. Button, a former guidance counsellor at Samuel Hearne Secondary School, was charged in 2013.
At Button's sentencing hearing April 22, Crown prosecutor Jeannie Scott told the court Button and the victim were driving in a car in the summer of 1978 in Inuvik. Button was giving a driving lesson to the victim and was sitting in the passenger seat when he reached over and locked the driver's side door. He then opened the youngster's pants, popping a button on his fly, and grabbed his genitals, she said.
"He pulled hard, causing pain," Scott said. "He then pulled his own pants open, exposing his genitals and pulled the victim's head toward them. The victim resisted."
Button then lowered his own head towards the victim's genitals and told him he was going to teach him how to be a man, Scott said. The boy managed to stop the vehicle and put it in park before exiting. Scott said that he had physical pain in his genitals for a week.
The victim disclosed what had happened to him to a friend in 2010 and later that year gave a statement to police, Scott said.
"This is a serious offence that calls for substantial custody," Scott said. "He took advantage of the authority and trust placed in him by the boy and has shown no remorse," she said in calling for a sentence of between two to three years in prison.
The offence took place while the victim's father, described as a friend of Button's, was in Edmonton for cancer treatment.
"The father told the victim he could rely on Button while he was away," Scott said.
She read from a victim impact statement in which the man said he has suffered lasting physical and emotional damage from the assault.
He said he stopped trusting teachers, failed Grade 8 and dropped out of school before he reached Grade 9, Scott said.
Scott said the victim does not allow his children to attend sleepovers and never puts them in the care of a babysitter because of what happened.
Button's lawyer Rod Gregory told the court this is Button's first ever criminal conviction. He said the assault did not last very long in duration and although it was serious, was not a major sex assault. "Although my client pleaded not guilty and denied under oath that the assault took place he does in fact accept the court's process and the court's finding," Gregory said. He called for a sentence of between six and 12 months.
"My client chooses not to address the court before sentencing," Gregory said.
Button, who remained the prisoner's box throughout the hearing, has been in custody at the North Slave Correctional Centre since his conviction on March 5.
