HAY RIVER
A former swim coach and trustee of the Commission scolaire francophone was found guilty of sexual assault and sexual interference in a Hay River Court last week.

Despite testifying in his own defense, a jury ruled Michael St. John had indeed touched a person under the age of 16 for sexual purposes. The complainant testified that St. John had molested her in a home in Hay River repeatedly between 2003 and 2012, when she was between the ages of five and 14.

She told the court, through both a videotaped statement and testimony, that the assault happened in the context of massages and that St. John touched her in sexual areas. She also said that on two occasions that she could remember, he pressed himself against her legs through clothes and against her back several other times.

While St. John's lawyer Peter Harte argued that the holes in the complainant's memory were too big and numerous to warrant a conviction, ultimately it was not enough to sway the jury.

Crown prosecutor Kindra Lakusta argued that the relationship between St. John and the complainant was one of trust and that he used that trust to commit the crimes.

"(She) was the child, and Mr. St. John was the adult," she said. "Sexual abuse is a secret and very often we don't have corroboration."

According to the complainant, who cannot be named as a result of a publication ban, the abuse had occurred several times a week for much of the nine-year period covered by the charges. She only started to believe that it could be wrong as she grew older and started speaking to a friend about it.

"It was something that was happening so often, I couldn't tell what was inappropriate and what wasn't," she said.

St. John is a former swim coach who has also run for town council. He was a member of the board of trustees for the Commission scolaire francophone and remained so after he was charged, albeit on inactive duty. He resigned from this position June 12.

Sophie Call, former Ecole Boreale principal, testified on St. John's behalf, saying that from what she knew of him publicly, he was an honest man.

The charges of sexual assault and sexual interference of which St. John was convicted stemmed from the same incidents, and as a result the court has decided the latter be stayed in a process that doesn't allow a person to be punished twice for the same thing.

St. John has been released but remains under similar conditions as before his trial, namely house arrest apart from between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. each day and that he cannot have contact with anyone under 16 years old.

Sentencing was scheduled on Monday but will await a pre-sentencing report, something Lakusta said typically takes between six and eight weeks. St. John is also facing separate sexual assault charges in a trial in Yellowknife in November.

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