Brother of care home sex assault victim says system ‘failed’

WARNING — This story contains graphic details.

In the days since 59-year-old Rick Boguski delivered a heart-wrenching victim impact statement about the horrific abuse his 63-year-old brother Darryl suffered at the hands of Brent Gabona, hundreds of people have reached out to him.

“One of the things that stands out in our minds are those parents of children or loved ones that are challenged, afraid that this may happen to them,” said Boguski.

Gabona, a former care aid at Shepherd’s Villa group home in Hepburn, has pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual assault and two counts of sexual exploitation of a person with a disability. He confessed to the crimes more than a decade after leaving the group home in 2009.

Gabona’s sentencing hearing began Oct. 11 with an agreed statement of facts read out in court, and victim impact statements delivered by Boguski and others. A sentencing decision is expected in January.

Darryl stayed at Shepherd’s Villa where Gabona was employed from 1990 to 2015. He lives with intellectual disabilities, autism, epilepsy, blindness and limited ability to communicate verbally.

He was kicked out of the group home for behavioral issues, which Rick claimed were a direct result of the abuse he suffered at the group home.

According to a civil lawsuit filed in March in Court of King’s Bench in Saskatoon by Boguski, during his brother’s time at the group home Darryl displayed injuries like rashes, bruising to his chest and nipples, and swollen testicles. He also suffered frequent urinary infections.

In 1999, Darryl was also diagnosed with pulmonary edema, an accumulation of fluid around the heart. Previously, Darryl had no cardiac issues. The statement of claim asserts that the condition was the result of Gabona holding Darryl’s head underwater while bathing him.

Rick told 650 CKOM he learned much more about Gabona through the courts than was revealed to him earlier by either police or the Crown.

“I’ve been weak in the knees and physically ill since the court hearing. That was the first time that we learned some of the details that happened to Darryl. We didn’t know that Darryl fought back … and that (Gabona) was only interested in those victims that did fight back,” he said.

“That was really, really hard to hear.”

Boguski said it was also horrendous to hear that Gabona had been convicted in 1992 of another sex-related crime against a minor. He said he’s still hoping that additional charges will be laid against the former care aid, but said it’s hard to get answers.

“The message is pretty much the same. The Brent Gabona case remains an open investigation. It’s possible more charges could be laid. We have heard that from Day 1,” he said.

Travelling to Saskatchewan from Alberta for the hearing earlier this month was extraordinarily hard on Darryl, Rick explained.

“I’ve noticed a tremendous setback in Darryl just over the last week and a half since we were in court facing his attacker,” he said.

“(Darryl) has been even more frightened than he normally is in the bathroom. He has been grinding his teeth and mashing his head into his headboard, and I just can’t imagine the horrors he experienced and what he is thinking now.”

Boguski said he hasn’t yet decided whether he’ll return to Saskatchewan for the sentencing decision.

As his brother’s guardian, Boguski said it’s important for families of those living in group homes or other care facilities to ask questions, recognize changes in behaviour patterns, listen, and watch for anything that may point to signs of battery or abuse.

“These folks will be communicating to you somehow. Darryl was communicating to us. We weren’t listening, obviously,” Rick admitted.

Families, he added, have a right to be afraid.

“The system that we thought would protect Darryl in his group home for all those years failed,” Rick said.

650 CKOM has reached out to the Crown for comment.

–With files from 650 CKOM’s Libby Giesbrecht.