Sexual assault trial begins for school counsellor
A trial has begun for a former Prince Albert school counsellor accused of sexual assault.
Gerald Turcotte’s two-week trial opened this morning at Prince Albert’s Court of Queen’s Bench. Turcotte is accused of sexual assault, sexual interference and invitation to sexual touching. The charges carry a maximum jail sentence of 14 years.
The court heard from the female complainant in the case, whose name cannot be printed due to a publication ban, as she was a minor when the alleged assault occurred.
According to her testimony, when she was attending St. John School in the late 90s, she was assigned Turcotte as a counsellor. Turcotte, she testified, would regularly pick her up and take her to St. Francis School for counselling in his office to help her with issues stemming from attention deficit disorder and other learning disabilities.