Lawyers call for public inquiry into years of alleged abuse in St. John's trailer park
2 lawyers say inquiry needed to investigate systemic failings
The lawyer representing six people who allege they were sexually abused by Tony Humby is calling for a public inquiry.
Stephen Barnes wants the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary put under the microscope to determine why previous investigations involving Humby did not result in criminal charges. Previous reporting by CBC Investigates — based on untested search warrant documents — showed Humby had been known to police since at least 2007, when a 16-year-old accused Humby of drugging and raping him.
Police arrested Humby on April 6, 2023. He is now charged with abusing 11 teens in total.
"We need to know who knew what, and when," Barnes said. "I would like to know why — despite there being multiple interactions between Mr. Humby and police — no arrests were made until relatively recently."
Barnes does not believe those answers will come from processes that are already underway — including an active police investigation, criminal proceedings and a review by the province's child and youth advocate into the child protection system.
A public inquiry, he said, would have the power and resources necessary to compel evidence and get answers.
Humby has pleaded not guilty to 33 charges including sexual assault, sexual interference and forcible confinement. He has yet to enter a plea on 39 more recent charges, including child luring and making child pornography.
An alleged accomplice, 82-year-old Bruce Escott, is facing 14 charges. He's pleaded guilty to one count so far, as part of a deal with the Crown, and is due to be sentenced on Friday.
Alleged victims question handling of prior investigations
Many of Barnes's questions stem from a pair of investigations in the fall of 2007, which were detailed in search warrant documents — untested in court — that a provincial court judge ordered to be unsealed for CBC Investigates.
According to the documents, a 16-year-old boy went to police and said he'd been raped by Humby, who was 47 at the time. He gave a detailed statement to police and had a rape kit collected at the local hospital.
Humby was called into the RNC headquarters on Sept. 20, 2007. He gave one interview with police, refuting the claims from the alleged victim. He was told after the interview that no charges would be laid.
The rape kit was destroyed, according to the search warrant documents. Barnes said his client was told it was never analyzed.
Court documents lay out another interaction with police, just three weeks after the rape complaint in 2007.
Humby was pulled over on Blackhead Road outside of St. John's at 3 a.m. Police found him with three boys in his car — two who were 16, and one who was 13. According to the police's recounting of events, the group was believed to have been drinking.
There's nothing in the search warrant filings to suggest Humby was taken into custody that morning. According to the documents, one of the boys was later questioned by police, but insisted nothing happened that night. Humby declined to speak with the RNC, citing the advice of his lawyer.
Police would return to both cases 16 years later with a different outcome. Humby is now charged with sexually assaulting the 16-year-old complainant from September 2007, and is accused of assaulting the 13-year-old boy in the months following the traffic stop.
Both of those men — now in their early 30s — are among those who have hired Barnes to explore potential lawsuits against the RNC and the province.
"It really raises questions with respect to my client who went to police in 2007 and filed the complaint and had a rape kit … and they didn't analyze it at all before concluding there was no merit to his complaint against Tony Humby," Barnes said.
According to the search warrant documents, Humby appeared in nine police investigations between 2007 and 2021. He wasn't charged until 2023.
Inquiry needed for child welfare system, says lawyer
When Lynn Moore saw the first CBC Investigates story on Sept. 24, her mind went through a long line of child abuse scandals in the province's past — from the boys abused at the Mount Cashel Orphanage to the murder of one-year-old Zachary Turner in 2003.
"Here we go again," said the longtime lawyer based in Mount Pearl. "We have a system that is not protecting children and it's a system that's supposed to protect children, but it's just not."
Moore believes a public inquiry is needed to understand how child protection laws are coming up short.
WATCH | Lynn Moore on how the child protection system is "failing vulnerable children":
The provincial government introduced new legislation in 2010, replacing the former Child, Youth and Family Services Act from 1998. The old act was built on seven key principles — one of which was "prevention activities." When new legislation was introduced in 2010, the principles were removed and Moore says prevention was no longer enshrined as a priority.
Moore believes that created a system that favoured one blunt tool — removing children from their homes — over more complex options that would prevent abuse and keep kids with their families.
"They looked at the system and they said we're not doing a very good job. So instead of furnishing the system with the resources that it needed to protect children in this province, they decided that they would just do less," Moore said.
Moore also takes issue with the definition of a child in need of protection under the current legislation.
If a child is being abused by someone other than their parent, and their parent has made an effort to stop it, the legislation does not consider that child to be in need of protection.
"Their predators are not the mandate of child protection, and [they] should be," Moore said.
Premier Andrew Furey has ordered the province's Child and Youth Advocate, Linda Clemens Spurrell, to conduct a review of "policies and procedures" within the child protection system.
But Moore doesn't believe that review is enough. She has concerns about the advocate's previous role in the child protection system during critical years of the Humby investigation. She also believes the scope of the review and the resources available to the advocate are too limited.
"I really think that the province needs a public inquiry to look at best practices of how people are doing child protection right in this country, because we are not. We are failing."
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