The allegations against Jackson Taylor are these - sexual assault; sexual interference with a person under 14; invitation to sexual touching.
The alleged victim was a boy then just in kindergarten; Mr. Taylor was then the boyfriend of the boy's now-deceased mother; the assaults were allegedly grim, fleeting, ruinous moments between a burly grown man who purportedly drank heavily every day, and a slender child of about five.
But in the evidence already before Ontario Superior Court Judge Nancy Spies at Mr. Taylor's trial is another harrowing tale, the story of this boy and his brother, tossed among relatives so often the victim can't begin to remember all the places he has lived; of startling dysfunction that even when reported to child-welfare authorities appeared to fall on deaf ears, and the fact that the boy himself has grown into a gentle teenager.
Now 16, he can't be identified, nor, to protect his anonymity, can his father or stepmother, who essentially rescued the two boys about seven years ago.
But all three have testified at the judge-alone trial in downtown Toronto.
Judge Spies has now heard that the boy and his brother in their early years were often dropped off by their mother - who died in 2007 - at a grandparent's, one or another of two aunts, and an uncle's.
But they also lived with their mother and Mr. Taylor, either in Toronto or outside the city when they would crash for extended periods of time with a friend who lived near a reserve; this is the home reserve for both the boy's dad and for Mr. Taylor.
This house was party central, testified Carrie Cheeseman, a no-nonsense woman who lived nearby and worked for the owner as a housekeeper. While she was fond of the man, she was under no illusions about how he lived, particularly when Mr. Taylor and the boy's mother came to visit, kids in tow.
"Mostly, they were drunk," she said. "They mighta been high, but mostly it was booze … they were drinking, heavily, daily, 24-7," she told the judge. Almost without exception, she said, when Mr. Taylor and the family were there, "The music was blarin', the booze was flowin', the kids were quiet as mice."
One weekend, she said, when the boy was perhaps three, his brother maybe five, she got a panicked call from the man who owned the house. She tore over there, and he told her what he'd seen.
He'd opened the door to the bedroom, he told her, "and Jackson had absolutely no clothes on and the baby didn't have a diaper…." Her friend said he had "the sickest feeling," and told her, "You've got to take the kids and get them out of here."
(This incident doesn't form part of the charges against Mr. Taylor, but the prosecutor has said he may seek to have the indictment amended.)
Ms. Cheeseman did take the children, kept them for a few days until their mother showed up.
She also tracked down the boys' father, and phoned to tell him and the stepmother "what I thought was going on with the children. I told her I thought the children were being molested by Jackson Taylor."
She told Mr. Taylor's lawyer, Stephen Ford, that later she called the couple back to tell them "I'd been threatened, that my life had been threatened by your client," and that she had no interest in further involvement.
"I'm not scared today," Ms. Cheeseman said. "I was then. And I don't live anywhere near there now."
She knew the boy's dad and stepmom "were calling police and CAS [Children's Aid]"
Indeed, the stepmother testified that first in 2000, when Ms. Cheeseman called, and then again two years later, she contacted two child-welfare authorities (one native, one in Toronto) and the Ontario Provincial Police. "All these agencies looked into it," the stepmother said, "and nothing ever came of it." The boy's father confirmed that in his testimony, adding that one agency "investigated" the home where his ex and Mr. Taylor were living and pronounced it safe.
The boy himself testified via closed-circuit television from a room down the hall.
The boy is, just as his stepmom testified, skinny, all arms and legs. He is excruciatingly polite. As, under the respectful questioning of prosecutor Ken Lockhart, he began to speak of the alleged abuse, he had to suddenly excuse himself and ran to the bathroom.
"He would take me for walks," he said, "and touch me, my private area, make me take off my clothes when there was no one around." Later, he told Mr. Lockhart that mostly, Mr. Taylor would masturbate him. He didn't speak up for years because "I didn't want my cousins to get tooken away by the CAS, I was told if I said something, my cousins would be tooken away."
It made him feel "weird," he said, and lonely. "Like no one really knew about it and it was happening, and I was scared."
He likes living with his dad and stepmom, he said, "because nothing like that would happen there, and I always had food, and I didn't have to worry about drugs and alcohol, and I felt safe."
It doesn't seem like such a lot to ask for out of life.
The trial continues.