A retired Chatham-Kent violin teacher who was found guilty of inappropriately touching 20 of his former students will have to wait a little longer to learn his fate.
Claude Eric Trachy, who was previously found guilty of 28 sexual and indecent assault charges in connection with several incidents in the 1970s, '80s, and early '90s, sat through a sentencing hearing in a Chatham courtroom Monday, joined by his defence lawyer Ken Marley and a handful of supporters. On the opposite side of the courtroom, about a dozen victims were joined by family and friends.
Justice Jonathan George, who was assigned to the case after a panel at the Ontario Court of Appeal determined that the trial judge erred in a previous decision to acquit Trachy on dozens of sex charges, will take some time to go over the evidence presented by the Crown and the defence and is scheduled to release his decision on Trachy's sentence on March 2 at 10 a.m.
During Monday's hearing, the defence made its case for a suspended sentence of up to three years of probation while the Crown argued that Trachy should serve five years in jail.
Defence lawyer Ken Marley's submission noted that this is a "unique case," pointing to Trachy's previous acquittal in April 2018 and the decision by the appeals court to not only overturn Justice Thomas Carey's initial ruling, but to go so far as to issue 28 convictions. Marley also referred to several letters of support for Trachy from family, friends, and colleagues and noted that Trachy is considered a "low risk" to re-offend.
Marley said, in his opinion, the only reason for sending Trachy to jail would be "retribution" or "revenge" for the victims, adding that after Trachy was first charged with sex offences in 1991, he "corrected his behaviour" and there were no further reported incidents of abuse or inappropriate behaviour.
The Crown challenged the defence's position, saying it "doesn't operate based on revenge" and outlined several "aggravating factors" that were considered when pursuing a sentence of five years behind bars. The Crown argued that Trachy abused his position of trust and authority as a teacher, adding that the age of the victims (as minors) and the frequency of the abuse should also be considered in the judge's decision.
Monday's hearing began with a dozen victim impact statements, several of which were read aloud in the courtroom by the victims themselves. Now grown women, the victims were minors at the time of the incidents, with most noting they were between the ages of 10 and 16 years old.
Their statements included accounts of the physical, emotional, and financial toll that the abuse has had on them -- both at the time of the incidents and in the decades since then.
Several of the victims recounted going through dozens of hours of counselling to help them cope with emotional and psychological issues they said stemmed directly from what was often referred to as a "violation" of their sexual integrity. The first victim to take the stand shared that she struggled with self-destructive feelings and thoughts of suicide as a result of the abuse, adding that she still suffers from depression, anxiety, and nightmares where she sees Trachy and feels powerless to stop him from revictimizing her.
The victim impact statements also referred to feelings of shame, guilt, and anxiety in the years following the abuse with one of Trachy's former students sharing that she is left feeling vulnerable, delicate, fragile, and scarred. Another victim, who is now in her 50s, addressed Trachy directly, telling him that she is angry at what happened and that it "doesn't seem just" that she has been serving an emotional and psychological "sentence" for the last 40 years as a result of the abuse.
In total, 12 statements were read aloud in the courtroom Monday, with two additional statements submitted for the judge to consider as he determines a sentence.