P.E.I. Arts Organization Says Parents Should Have Protected Daughter from Sex Abuse

In their statements of defence, an arts organization and its executives say that the parents of a girl who endured sex abuse by a program instructor were negligent in protecting her from it. 

The P.E.I. Arts Guild, its chief executive officer Alanna Jankov, Anne and Gilbert Inc., and its producer, Campbell Webster, along with the perpetrator, Aaron Crane, were named in a $1.5 million lawsuit filed on behalf of the girl and her family, reported CBC News in January. The sex abuse lawsuit alleged that the organization and its executives should have done more to protect the girl from Crane, who had earlier been involved in inappropriate sexual behaviour with another child and whose actions had been described as “pedophile” by other staff. 

The arts organization and its leaders shifted the blame back on the parents in recently filed court documents asserting it was the parents’ responsibility to protect their daughter, reports CBC. 

“There were never complaints of sexual impropriety, but were observations of inappropriate behaviour,” says the submitted defence statement, which also reportedly notes that the arts group notified the girl’s parents and police when concerns about Crane were reported by another employee. 

The statement of defence also claims that Crane lost his job after a second complaint was made, reports the CBC. In addition, the defendants say the girl’s parents and the police were again notified. 

In sum, says the statement, the girl’s parents “knew or ought to have known that there was inappropriate contact between Aaron Crane and [the girl] and they were negligent in not taking steps to end the contact and resulting sexual relations.”

The lawsuit filed by the parents reportedly contends that their daughter was “groomed” by Crane for the eventual sexual abuse “in plain view of all” at the Guild facility. 

Crane, who was sentenced to six years after entering a guilty plea for sexual interference of a girl who was under 16 at the time of the abuse, has not yet entered a statement of defense, reports CBC News. Crane’s criminal trial revealed that he first met the girl when she was a preteen. She took private music lessons from Crane who allegedly began the sexual abuse when the girl was a teenager. 

Do you think youth organizations have a responsibility to protect their participants from sex abuse? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.

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