Former B.C. principal accused of sex abuse confronted at pretrial proceeding
Credit to Author: Keith Fraser| Date: Tue, 03 Dec 2019 01:09:35 +0000
A former Kitimat school principal was confronted Monday by several ex-students who showed up to support a man suing him for damages.
Cyril Bernard Portman is being sued by Allan Carrigan, 50, over an incident that allegedly occurred in 1981 when Carrigan was 12 years old and attending Kildala Elementary.
In October 1983, Portman, who was 46 years old at the time, pleaded guilty to 11 sexual offences involving juveniles. The offences occurred between 1977 and 1983. Portman was sentenced to 18 months in jail and three years of probation.
At the time of the criminal case he was employed as a vice-principal at Mount Elizabeth Secondary School after having been the principal at Kildala for 15 years.
Several former students of Kildala were present Monday when Portman entered a Downtown Vancouver building where a pretrial proceeding known as an examination-for-discovery was being held. His civil trial is not expected to get underway until September 2021.
“Our goal here is to make a stand for the boys of Kildala,” said Carrie Deaves. “They didn’t get their justice back in 1983.”
Carrigan, who was not one of the complainants from the criminal case, says in a notice of civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court that during a school camping trip Portman told him he needed to zip their sleeping bags together in order to stay warm, and did so.
During the evening, Portman allegedly put his arm over Carrigan’s body and began rubbing his stomach, making him feel uncomfortable. After Carrigan went to sleep, he alleges that he awoke to find Portman with his hand underneath his underwear and sexually abusing him.
Carrigan’s lawsuit alleges that the local school district, which is named as a defendant, was negligent in a number of ways, including that it failed to properly investigate Portman’s background, character and psychological state before accepting him as a teacher.
Surrey’s Carrigan said in an email that the lawsuit came about when he mentioned the alleged abuse during drug counselling about four years ago.
“It was the first time I spoke about it to anyone. It wasn’t easy. Slowly over the last couple years I told an elder at Bible study and then my wife. Since the suit was filed I announced it to all my Facebook friends. It’s a long journey. It’s all about healing.”
He’s claiming general, special and punitive and/or aggravated damages.
In September, Portman filed a response to Carrigan’s suit in which he denies the allegations against him.
“In answer to the whole of the amended notice of civil claim, the defendant specifically denies that he in any way touched, assaulted, sexually assaulted, abused or exploited the plaintiff, or that he was negligent or in breach of any duty, statutory or otherwise, either as alleged in the amended notice of civil claim or at all,” says his response.
In its response, the school district said that while Portman was employed by the district, it denies that he was acting under the authority or within the scope of his employment if he engaged in sexual activity with Carrigan, and in any event denies that any abuse involving the plaintiff occurred.