A former Vernon teacher is on trial for sex crimes that allegedly happened two decades ago.
Anoop Singh Klair is facing several charges, including sexual assault and sexual interference of a person under the age of 14.
Most of the incidents are alleged to happen sometime between 1999 and 2003.
Many of the details of the case are under a publication ban, including the identity of Klair’s alleged victims.
On Tuesday, one witness testified that Klair pulled him into the washroom when he was just 13 years old, shushed him to be quiet, and sodomizee him with some sort of object, like a plunger or a toilet brush.
The witness said he was bleeding afterwards, and Klair, who was in his late teens or early twenties at the time, was snickering and laughing.
The alleged victim didn’t step forward until years later, when an incident happened that he said became a trauma trigger.
During cross-examination, the defence questioned inconsistencies in the witness’s account, like whether he was pushed or pulled into the washroom, pointing out that his testimony was different from what he had said during earlier court proceedings.
The witness acknowledged the difference, but said whether he was pushed or pulled, “that didn’t stop the fact that he was being raped by this man.”
He also testified that he’s had to dig deep into his mind to recall the incident that he had put away for many years.
Klair held his teaching certificate, but in the weeks after some of his alleged victims stepped forward to RCMP in the fall of 2018, he signed an agreement not to practice teaching until a matter that was now before the commissioner was resolved.
The allegations stem back to the time before Klair graduated with his teaching degree.
Citing privacy reasons, the Vernon School District previously refused to confirm whether or not it had ever employed Klair, but confirmed at the time he was not a current employee.
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