Voyeurism trial opens for Halifax-area school teacher

The voyeurism trial of a Halifax-area school teacher opened Monday in Dartmouth provincial court.

Matthew Douglas Moriarty, 43, is accused of secretly recording images of women and girls in a washroom at the Abenaki Aquatic Club in Dartmouth, N.S., on July 18-20, 2023.

Moriarty was originally charged last July with six counts of voyeurism but one charge was dropped as the trial got underway Monday after Crown attorney Peter Dostal told the court there was no realistic prospect of a conviction on that count. 

Moriarty, a language teacher at Woodlawn High School in Dartmouth, was placed on leave as soon as the charges were announced. The identities of the complainants are protected by a publication ban.

Jennifer Mosher, the paddling club's commodore, was the first witness to testify Monday. She told the court she was approached by a club member who reported she'd seen Moriarty place a cellphone on the floor of the washroom beneath the partition separating two toilets.

Mosher said her first reaction was "You've got to be kidding me."

Camera placed covertly between bathroom stalls

Mosher said she began investigating on her own and tried to observe what Moriarty was looking at on his phone as he sat on the beach at the club. She said she wasn't able to see anything.

The witness said that as she and other club members discussed the situation, others came forward to say they had experienced similar incidents in which Moriarty had placed a phone inside a pair of shorts that he left on the floor of the washroom between the two stalls.

Mosher said she and another club member, who is one of the complainants, followed Moriarty into the clubhouse, and when he got in line for the washroom, the club member joined the line as well. Moriarty entered one stall and the other woman went in the adjoining one, she said.

Moments later, Mosher said, the woman motioned for her to join her in the stall, where they saw a pair of shorts on the floor with a cellphone in a mesh pocket.

Cross-examination

Mosher said the phone was positioned so that the camera was facing up. She said she leaned against the partition to take pictures of the shorts and the camera with the other woman's cellphone.

Mosher testified that once she heard of a similar incident to the one she had witnessed, she decided to call police. She had other club members stall Moriarty by talking to him while she placed the call.

Under cross-examination by Moriarty's lawyer, Jennifer MacDonald, Mosher said she had a duty to report because of the vulnerable people — children — who attend Abenaki.

She told MacDonald if she had had definite proof of images, she would have called 911.

Instead, she called the police non-emergency line. She was told officers were en route, but she said Moriarty was preparing to leave so she engaged him in conversation until she saw police coming through the entrance.

Victim of alleged voyeurism testifies

Mosher admitted in her cross-examination that in her police statement, she had described Moriarty as "weird." But she testified a more accurate description would have been "very excited."

The Crown's second witness Monday was the complainant who helped Mosher to take photos of the cellphone wrapped in shorts on the washroom floor.

The woman testified that on July 19, 2023, the day before police were called, she was in a washroom with her young son when she noticed a phone in the adjacent stall propped up against a plastic yellow sign warning users of a wet floor.

The woman said the camera appeared to be aimed into her stall. She kicked the phone as she was leaving and said she saw Moriarty in the other stall.

She said he told her he was trying to repair the lock. She testified that when she heard on July 20 about the alleged incident that day, she felt it was important to investigate and worked with Mosher by following Moriarty into the washroom.

Sexual assault charge dismissed

The trial is scheduled to run all week.

Moriarty had also been facing a charge of sexual assault, but that charge was dismissed after he agreed to a peace bond and to stay away from the complainant in that case.