Man on 'Scared Straight' Tour Was Dragged to Inmates' Cell

Canadian was raped during prison tour
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 8, 2018 12:05 PM CST
Man Raped on Prison Tour Finally Wins in Court
Stock photo.   (Getty Images)

A man who was raped during a "scared straight" prison tour in the late 1970s will get at least $131,000 for his pain and suffering—even though "the money's nothing," he tells the CBC. "It's not going to fix anything." Identified in court documents as BES, the Canadian was arrested at age 13 or 14 after breaking into a house on a dare, per the CBC. His parents agreed to him touring Oakalla Prison in Burnaby, British Columbia, as part of his punishment—to scare him from ever doing it again. But on the tour, BES says he was "grabbed" by a prison guard and taken to a cell where inmates tried to make him perform oral sex and then raped him in turn. "That's what happens to little f--kers like you," the guard allegedly said while laughing. "Nobody's going to believe you."

A judge found Tuesday that BES had been raped by Oakalla inmates and deeply affected by it. "The sexual assault of BES was a single event, but it was brutal, and I accept that it continues to have an impact on his day-to-day functioning well into adulthood," writes Justice Jennifer Duncan. Indeed, BES says he bled for days, hid the rape from his parents, and suffered psychological trauma including PTSD, major depression, suicidal thoughts, anxiety, and a cocaine addiction. Now 54, BES believes former corrections officer David MacDougall—a former sex offender accused many times of prisoner abuse—dragged him to the assault that day, but has no proof. Either way, it's far from over: "It's been just chewing me up for 40 years," says BES. "It chews me up to this day." His $131,000 award may grow pending a future ruling on liability, per Global News.

(More prison stories.)

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