Former youth centre worker in Regina charged with 39 counts of sexual assault
Published Friday August 8th, 2008
REGINA - A man who worked at a Regina youth centre, where young people have alleged that abuse was hidden for decades, is facing more than three dozen charges of sexual assault.
Ronald Anthony Sawa was arrested by RCMP Friday and charged with 39 counts involving 18 boys and girls between the ages of 10 and 17.
"This has been a very involved, sensitive and complicated investigation," said RCMP Sgt. Carole Raymond.
The investigation was launched in 2004 after six people came forward to police alleging abuse at the Saskatchewan Boys Centre, now the Paul Dojack Youth Centre.
Sawa, 58, worked at the facility from 1974 to 1989.
Raymond said the charges stem from his time there, but could not say what Sawa's role was at the facility.
The centre was initially a child welfare facility used to house those under protection orders and it was also a detention centre for youth. In 1985, it started operating strictly as a youth custody facility.
"These were kids were who taken from parental custody, family custody for a variety of reasons and also youth who had been charged with criminal offences," said Judy Orthner, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Corrections, Public Safety and Policing.
The centre has been mired in controversy.
Dozens of civil lawsuits have been filed against the Saskatchewan government by people who allege sexual and physical assaults and mental abuse. One man, who cannot be identified, told The Canadian Press that he was abused by staff at the centre in the mid-1970s when he was about 14.
"Mine happened in a secure unit where there'd be two staff working and if you went downstairs with the staff ... only one would go down there with you. The other one had to stay up with the other kids. That's where my abuse happened.
"And what do you do? You'd get a cigarette and he'd tell us straight that 'no one's going to believe you," he said.
"Who's gonna believe us? Most of us were criminals locked up as kids," he said.
The man believes he is one of the 18 alleged victims connected to the charges. He said the RCMP talked to him about charges being laid, but he didn't think it ever would happen.
"People had to know, I mean this abuse went on for decades. Why didn't the media pick up on this before? Because it was kind of hushed up."
He said his case has already been settled out of court with the province.
Orthner confirmed that three civil suits involving allegations of abuse at the centre have been settled. She said she could not say more because the criminal case and 35 other civil cases are before the courts. She added the settlements do not admit liability.
None of the allegations has been proven in court.
Sawa was released from custody Friday by a Justice of the Peace and is scheduled to appear in Regina Provincial Court Sept. 22.
The police investigation is ongoing. Raymond said there is the potential for more victims to be identified or more charges to be laid.
Regina lawyer Tony Merchant, who represents the alleged victims, said he's not surprised by the charges, even though several years have passed since the investigation was launched.
"Police and prosecutors want to be careful, correctly, about not laying serious charges unless they're confident they're going to achieve a conviction," said Merchant.
"But it's still hard on the (alleged) victims because here are people who four years ago came forward and would have thought 'Why am I not being believed, why haven't these charges been laid.' So it's always hard on victims."
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