WARNING: This article contains details of alleged sexual abuse.
The prosecution wrapped its closing submissions in the trial for accused sexual predator Tony Humby on Wednesday, ending an important chapter in a trial that’s been ongoing for more than a year.
Deidre Badcock spent the better part of two days recapping all the evidence heard throughout the trial, emphasizing the close calls Humby had with police and parents over the years.
Any rational person would have changed their behaviour, Badcock said, but not Tony Humby.
“All of this evidence shows a predator who can’t help himself,” she told the court. “He can’t stay away from these children.”
Humby is facing 71 charges related to 10 complainants, all of whom were vulnerable youth at the time of the alleged offences. Many grew up in poverty, suffered from drug addictions and had mental health issues. Some said they were as young as 12 or 13.
Complainant in Tony Humby case says alleged 2007 assault led to drug use, years of trauma
Humby’s first close call came in 2007, when a 17-year-old went to the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary and said he’d been raped by Humby at his trailer on Hussey Drive in St. John’s.
Humby was interviewed by police and informed no charges would be laid. The officer who spoke to him testified at Humby’s trial last year, saying she regrets her decision and that she would come to a different conclusion today.
Two weeks after he was interviewed, Humby was stopped on Blackhead Road at 3 a.m. with a trio of teenage boys in his car. No charges were laid, but a referral was made to the child welfare department.
“It should have been a second wakeup call,” Badcock said on Wednesday.
Instead, she said, Humby learned a different lesson. Badcock said Humby became more intentional after those encounters with police in 2007, spending more time grooming later victims to ensure they wouldn’t go to police again.
Thirteen years later, Humby was handed a court order prohibiting him from having contact with a 13-year-old boy who lived in a group home. The boy’s social workers stated in the application for the order that they believed he was being sexually abused by Humby.
If there was any ambiguity about the boy’s age, Badcock said that went out the window when Humby signed a copy of the court order, which had the boy’s birthdate on it.
Police made several attempts to interview the boy, but he wouldn’t speak to them.
At some point — the exact date was unknown — the boy’s mother went to Humby’s trailer and burst in through the front door. She yelled at Humby, telling him to stay away from her son or she would kill him.
Weeks after the court order, as Humby was being surveilled by the police, he was spotted with a different teen in his car at a gas station in the east end of St. John’s.
Suzanne FitzGerald, who was tailing Humby that day, made a decision to go against orders and intervene. She approached the boy and asked if he needed help. He told her he was 17, and that he wanted to stay with Humby.
RNC officer went against prior order, stopped Tony Humby with a teen 3 years before arrest
“I told him … I didn’t like any of this. I didn’t like it as a police officer. I didn’t like it as a mom,” FitzGerald told the court.
When Humby came out of the store with alcohol, FitzGerald blew her cover and confronted him.
“I told him I knew exactly what he was doing. I told him that everywhere he went he was going to be followed and watched.”
The allegations against Humby span another two years after the confrontation with police.
Badcock said Humby refused to stop.
Tony Humby chose to continue abusing youth after close calls with police, Crown alleges
In his closing submissions, defence lawyer Mark Gruchy argued the Crown had failed to prove many of the complainants were under the age of consent — which is 16 for most circumstances under Canadian law.
But Badcock argued that Humby was in effect soliciting the teens by providing them with alcohol, drugs and money in exchange for sexual acts — which is illegal when dealing with people under 18 years of age.
Humby is facing eight of those charges.
“The entire basis of their relationship is goods in exchange for sex,” Badcock said. “And children cannot consent to that. Full stop.”
She also pointed to three complainants who testified they woke up at Humby’s house to him sexually assaulting them. Regardless of their age at the time, Badcock said the evidence is clear that none of them consented to being assaulted.
“This can not ever be consensual,” Badcock said.
Gruchy will have a chance to give a rebuttal to Badcock’s closing submissions on Thursday morning. Both sides will then give submissions on a Jordan application filed by the defence, which seeks to have the majority of charges dismissed due to trial delays.
Judge Rolf Pritchard told the court he’d like to take 10 weeks to prepare his decision, placing a conclusion to the lengthy case just before the Christmas break.
If you’re in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911. For support in your area, you can look for crisis lines and local services via the Ending Sexual Violence Association of Canada database.
