Graphic allegations from his accusers
Women, most of them in their 40s, tell of groping and outright assault
Susan Lazaruk, The Province
Published: Wednesday, October 11, 2006

A summary of the alleged evidence against Tom Ellison as outlined by the Crown on the first day of his trial yesterday from Complainants 1 to 12:

- Complainant No. 1, Laura Anderson, 42 years old: At 16 or 17, she was invited to Ellison's boat and he asked her to rub his back and they kissed and he fondled her breasts. He had whispered in her ears at earlier Quest school dances that she was beautiful.

- Complainant No. 2, 43 years old: Alleged that Quest teachers at school dances would pair off with students for slow dances and she would often dance with Ellison, recalling in particular dancing to "Stairway to Heaven" with him when she was 15.

He would flatter her, comment on her body, build her up. When she was 16, she took a trip on Ellison's boat to the Sunshine Coast, which she viewed as an extension of school.

Ellison encouraged everyone to swim and sunbathe nude. She slept beside Ellison one night and was massaged and her breasts fondled, which led to deep kisses and Ellison putting his hand under her underwear and digitally penetrating her.

He put her hand on his penis and asked her to spread her legs but she said no. It was her first sexual experience and it upset her greatly.

- Complainant No. 3, 46 years old: At 16, she went on a summer trip on Ellison's boat to the Queen Charlotte Islands, where there was lots of massaging and skinny dipping.

Unwilling girls were goaded into stripping.

On her night to sleep with Ellison in his berth, he massaged her breasts and put his hands in her pants.

She stopped him but the following year had regular sexual contact, including mutual oral sex, on the boat or at Ellison's father's or sister's house.

He told her not to tell anyone or her father, who held a prominent position, would lose his job. She stopped before turning 18.

- Complainant No. 4, 47 years old: A former student when Ellison taught Grade 8 and 9 science, she was 14 years old and living in difficult home circumstances after her father died and her mother suffered a brain injury.

Ellison invited her to his boat one night and invited her to give him a back massage. It progressed to kissing, fondling of her breasts, manipulating his penis and digital penetration of her vagina. The activity was repeated 10 times throughout the next year.

- Complainant No. 5, 41 years old: She and Ellison started French kissing in the Quest classroom in Grade 10 or 11, when she was 16, and the activity escalated to oral sex when it was her turn to sleep with Ellison on his boat.

She is expected to testify she would keep a pillow over her head because she was worried someone might come in.

In Grade 11, she continued a sexual relationship with him until she and Laura Anderson discovered they had both been involved with him and they confronted him.

- Complainant No. 6, 44 years old: On two summer trips to the Charlottes when 17, she slept naked with Ellison in his boat and they massaged each other for an hour. It ended without further activity when Ellison said he had to restrain himself. He knew this complainant's mother very well.

- Complainant No. 7, 38 years old: At Prince of Wales just before Christmas 1983, students were giving each other wedgies and she gave a wedgie to a Quest teacher.

To retaliate, three male teachers, including Ellison, pinned her down in the back room and ripped off her underwear, leaving her in her mini skirt with her genitals exposed to other students. She fled to a bathroom, where she was comforted by a friend for 90 minutes and came out to find her underwear, stained with her menstruation blood, had been tacked up on a bulletin board.

- Complainant No. 8, 44 years old: At 16, she slept in the boat with Ellison on a trip to the Charlottes and he massaged her back and then her breasts. Two years later, after she graduated, she had sex with Ellison on a second trip to the Islands.

- Complainant No.9, 44 years old: On a summer trip in Grade 11, Ellison fondled her breasts and kissed her on the mouth and on a second summer trip after she graduated, there was mutual oral sex, which led to a casual sexual relationship for four years.

- Complainant No. 10, 44 years old: Slept with Ellison on a summer trip in Grade 10 but there was no sexual touching.

In Grade 11, she helped him clean his boat and after fondling and massaging, he performed oral sex and showed her how to masturbate. She failed to show for a second date and he reprimanded her after class one day on school grounds.

- Complainant No. 11, no age, no evidence provided.

- Complainant No. 12, 44 years old: After Grade 11 on a summer trip to the Charlottes,

Ellison massaged her breasts, kissed her and digitally penetrated her.

There was regular sexual activity between them every Friday night during Grade 12, which would begin with wine and candlelight on his boat and led to her massaging his back and then fondling and oral sex.

On her 18th birthday, Ellison kissed her on the mouth in front of another Quest teacher in the Quest classroom.

A fellow student who had a similar relationship with the other teacher spoke with Ellison about the impropriety of relationships.

Ellison had told her once she turned 18 they could start having sex and they had a 13-year sexual relationship from 1979 to 1992.