CALGARY – A former foster parent has been ordered to stand trial on charges of sexually abusing three boys in his care.
Provincial court Judge Terry Semenuk on Tuesday committed Garry Dale Prokopishin, 52, to face a trial at Court of Queen’s Bench on three counts of having sexual contact with a youth by a person in authority.
Semenuk made the ruling after hearing submissions by Crown prosecutor Gary Cornfield and defence lawyer Bina Border following two-day preliminary hearing.
Prokopishin had faced 13 charges relating to six alleged victims prior to the two-day hearing.
Evidence heard at the hearing cannot be reported because of a publication ban imposed by the judge.
Police have said the assaults occurred at the accused’s Calgary home and at locations outside the city between 2001 and 2008, when the complainants were in their mid-teens.
Prokopishin, a former director of the Calgary and District Foster Parents Association, was named Foster Family of the Year in 2007.
He will be in court with his lawyer later this fall to set a date for trial.
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