Sex-related charges against Gordon Hall dismissed

Superior Court Justice Robert Del Frate dismissed all six historical charges of indecent assault and gross indecency against the former director of the Bancroft Boys Home.

Gordon Hall, 70, faced six sex-related charges dating back to events three complainants alleged took place in the 1970s.

The three men, now in their 50s, were residents at the Bancroft Drive Boys' Home in the 1970s. They testified Hall, who was the home's director at the time, touched them sexually.

Because the men were minors at the time of the alleged abuse, information that could identify them is protected under a publication ban.

Del Frate said the Crown could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the alleged abuses occurred.

Testimony from the three complainants, he said, proved to be unreliable.

“It was the correct decision,” said an elated Hall, after the decision was rendered.

His wife Elizabeth Hall, could not hold back her emotions, and laid her head on her husband's shoulder and cried, when he was found to be not guilty.

Four of the charges against Hall concern alleged incidents involving one male teen that occurred in 1976. They included two counts of gross indecency — a charge that no longer exists under the Criminal Code — and two counts of indecent assault.

Del Frate dismissed the complainant's testimony because he was not able to identify Hall when he faced the court. When asked to point him out in the courtroom, the complainant, whose initials are R. B., pointed instead to a Sudbury Star reporter.

R. B. also admitted in court that years of drug abuse had affected his memory.

Hall faced another charge of gross indecency related to another complainant.

Del Frate said the complainant, with the initials D. L., also displayed inconsistencies in his testimony.

D. L. said in court that Hall fondled himself on his couch in front of him, in his Estaire home. But Del Frate noted that D. L. never mentioned the incident in his original statement, when the alleged incident would have been more fresh in his memory.

The sixth charge was for indecent assault, and concerned a third complainant with the initials G. H.

The complainant alleged Hall forced him to touch his genitals at two separate times in a sauna on Hall's property.

But several witnesses, including Hall, his brother Peter Hall, his wife Elizabeth, and a long-time neighbour, said there was no sauna on his property at the time of the alleged incident.

Del Frate said due to the witnesses' intimate knowledge of the property, their testimony was more reliable than the complainant's regarding the sauna.

As with the first complainant, G. H., said he also had a history with drug abuse, which has impacted his memory.

Hall still faces a charge of gross indecency and indecent assault for an incident alleged to have taken place in August 1973.

A preliminary hearing regarding those charges is scheduled for Nov. 24, 2014.