Roger Jabbour, former band teacher, acquitted on sex charges

Roger Jabbour, the former band teacher at Colonel Gray High School in Charlottetown, has been acquitted of charges of sexual exploitation involving a former student.

Jabbour faced two charges of sexual exploitation involving a student of his from the 1990s. The women's name is under a publication ban.

In her ruling, Chief Provincial Court Judge Nancy Orr said she had some reasonable doubt about the reliability of the woman's testimony.

The woman testified she met regularly with Jabbour in his office with the door locked, and that sexual touching took place. She said she confronted him when she finished Grade 12, and told him she never wanted to see him again.

Jabbour denied all the allegations against him.

Jabbour's credibility questioned by judge

In her ruling, Orr said she didn't find Jabbour to be a credible witness. She said he was "evasive", "argumentative", "hesitant" and some of his testimony was "illogical." 

Orr said the woman provided a clear and direct testimony throughout the trial. However, the judge said it was the five letters presented by the defence that the woman wrote to Jabbour and his family after she graduated that cast a reasonable doubt on the reliability of her evidence.

During the trial in September the woman identified her signature on the letters and confirmed she did write them, but testified she did not remember doing so.

"She's clearly wrong as to how the matter ended with Mr. Jabbour," Orr said. "The confrontation in the band room on a hot day may well be how she thinks she ended it, would like to have ended it, wished she had ended it … ​but the five letters clearly indicated that she was in contact with Mr. Jabbour after that time."

With that reasonable doubt, the judge said her only option was to acquit Jabbour.

"My client is very pleased with the decision even though his evidence was not accepted by the judge," said Jabbour's lawyer Joel Pink.

"It's the end result that really counts."

'Limitations for the courts'

Kinley Dowling, a musician and advocate for survivors of sexual assault, was in the courtroom Friday to hear the decision.

Dowling said she has been following the trial closely and worries the decision may discourage other survivors from coming forward in other cases.

"The laws don't appreciate how a victim will try to normalize a situation after an assault has occurred," Dowling said. "It makes you not want to come forward.

"I think it's the laws that need to change in order for us to move forward," she added.

Jillian Kilfoil, executive director of Women's Network PEI, said there are limits to the ways the law can protect victims of sexual assault and today's verdict was evidence of that.

"I think people are seeing today that there are real limitations for the courts and the legal system to provide true justice and accountability for survivors," Kilfoil said.

"It's really not a system that encourages or incentivizes people to come forward."

This was Jabbour's second trial on sex-related charges this year. In September Jabbour was found guilty of three charges involving three students from 2012 to 2015. One guilty finding was of sexual interference, which involves sexual touching. The two other guilty findings were sexual exploitation.

Jabbour is scheduled to be sentenced on those convictions Dec. 18.

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With files from Sally Pitt and Brittany Spencer