“Dagger in my heart”

“Dagger in my heart”

Finding his brother may have been sexually abused in a group home was devastating Rick Boguski. Now he and other families who had relatives in the care of the accused man are wondering if there could be more victims.

From Rick Bogusky’s porch, you can sometimes see eagles surfing the winds, gusts of pasture that surround the Livingston Range on the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Alberta.

Boguski sold his house in Calgary and brought his brother Daryl Boguski here to a rented ranch that is more than a century old when the coronavirus pandemic began flooding the world in the spring of 2020.

Daryl has cerebral palsy, is autistic, blind and unable to speak. The house, nestled about 30 kilometers north of Pincher Creek, became a refuge for Daryl, surrounded by magpies, hawks, swallows and their two dogs, Gracie and June.

Now the rhythm of Boguski’s life revolves around his brother’s needs.

One June morning, Boguski made Daryl an omelet garnished with strawberries and pineapple for breakfast. He sliced ​​the omelet and fed Daryl bit by bit. For lunch, Daryl eats ham and cheese on sourdough bread. Boguski then gently fed his brother one blueberry at a time from a bowl.

Boguski changes Daryl’s clothes several times a day, cleans it, transports it between the bedroom and the porch bed, where Daryl likes to lie wrapped in a blanket.

“I really thought we would be happy here,” Boguski said.

Rick Boguski feeds his brother a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch. Boguski’s life revolves around Daryl’s needs. (Dave Ray / CBC)

On April 20, Daryl’s 62nd birthday, Boguski baked a cake, sang a happy birthday and lit a steak barbecue when the phone rang.

This was an RCMP employee who asked if Daryl had ever lived in a group home for the cognitive and physically challenged called Shepherd’s Villa in Hepburn, Sask.

The policeman said that Daryl was a victim of sexual violence.

“It was like a dagger in my heart,” said Boguski, who cried to sleep tonight and called an RCMP officer in the morning.

Boguski was walking his dogs to the ranch he rented when COVID-19 struck, a home located about 30 kilometers north of Pincher Creek, Alta. (Dave Ray / CBC)

“I had to hear it all again because I wasn’t sure the first time I was told if I understood everything correctly.”

There was no misunderstanding. His brother has been identified as one of the five alleged victims of sexual violence at Shepard’s villa.

Brent Gabon, 52, paused before answering a question that plagued the parents and siblings of those who had cared for him for nearly two decades at Shepherd’s Villa.

Did the sexual assault stop five victims?

For about 25 seconds, Gabon, a married father of two, was silent, the question hovering over the hiss of a weak cell phone.

“I’m sorry, I can’t, I can’t answer that at the moment,” he told CBC News.

“I’ve done enough already and I don’t want to do more.”

WATCH CBC News receives a call from Brent Gabon:

After a three-week investigation, the RCMP in Rostern, Saskatchewan, indicted Gabon on May 10 on eight sexual assault charges – five sexual assault charges and three disabilities for sexual exploitation – which according to court records arose between 1992 and 2006

His five alleged victims – three men and two women living in the group home – could not speak or take care of themselves. They needed one-on-one help with tasks such as eating, bathing, or putting on their clothes. Three of the alleged victims have died.

The allegations cover the years Gabon worked at Shepherd’s Villa, located in a tree-lined corner of Hepburn, a city of about 780 people, about 45 kilometers north of Saskatoon.

Shepherd’s Villa is a group home for people with cognitive and physical disabilities in Hepburn, Saskatoon, a city north of Saskatoon. (Kimberly Ivani / CBC)

Gabon, who lives in Waldheim, Saskatchewan, has been released without having to pay bail, but one of his conditions is that he cannot be alone with his children without their mother present. His next court hearing is scheduled for July.

The RCMP squad in Rostern, 49 kilometers northeast of Hepburn, received a report of sexual assault at the group’s home on April 19, according to a police statement.

Gabon, who left the band’s home in 2009, told CBC News that he turned to the RCMP before being charged.

Brent Gabona, 52, faces eight charges of sexual assault. His next court hearing is scheduled for July. (Brent Gabon / Facebook)

Some of the families of those in Gabon’s care believe police have only scratched the surface of the investigation. They believe that the police should have contacted the family of every resident who was in the group home during the work in Gabon.

“I believe there are many holes in this investigation,” said Jacqueline Forbes, whose brother, Dean Astall, 38, was at home in Gabon’s last years and continues to live today.

Astle, who is nonverbal, has not been identified as the alleged victim.

“I don’t believe a line has just been drawn on my brother’s door,” Forbes said.

…