The retrial for a Cochrane man charged with sexual assault involving minors started on Monday.
Allan Dean Griffin, from Cochrane, is being retried on a number of charges involving three girls – his daughter and two stepdaughters – who were all under the age of 10 at the time. The charges include three counts of sexual assault, one count of sexual contact and two counts of breach of trust.
The retrial was ordered after the Alberta Court of Appeals ruled that Justice K. Yamauchi, who found Griffin not guilt in 2013, relied on “discredited myths and stereotypes” about how victims react in such circumstance to form his decision.
Justice Yamauchi questioned why the girls, who were all between the ages of five and nine at the time of the alleged encounters, had taken so many years to come forward with the accusations and why they couldn’t remember “innocuous things” such as where they were going to school at the time of the abuse.
Griffin’s daughter, 20, gave her testimony on Monday and his stepdaughters testified Tuesday and Wednesday.
“I’ve had dreams about it … the dreams got so bad I got to tell somebody,” Griffin’s daughter testified on Monday.
When questioned why she did not go to the police in 2010, when Griffin was originally charged with sexual assault relating to his stepdaughters, the daughter said she “did not feel safe” until 2011 after there had been a year of no-contact with Griffin.
When defence lawyer Paul Brunnen tried to suggest to the daughter that all three of the alleged incidents were “just dreams” or that her mother and stepmother pressured the daughter to make the allegations, the daughter disagreed.
Dawn Griffin, mother of the daughter, also testified on Monday, saying she had no knowledge of the alleged abuse and did “absolutely not” pressure her daughter.
The stepdaughters took the stand Tuesday and Wednesday.
The first stepdaughter, 21, who testified on Tuesday, alleged she remembered three different incidents of assault that eventually led to her decision to move in with her father in Airdrie.
The first stepdaughter explained that she did not come forward about the incidents to her mother because she didn’t want to “make it feel like it was her fault.”
She explained that years later she told her cousin, best friend, sister and father, who encouraged her to go to the RCMP in 2010.
The second stepdaughter, 22, testified she was the victim of a number of incidents that she remembered starting when she was six-years-old.
“I’m not sure because honestly it was so many occasions, it is hard to pinpoint a number,” the second stepdaughter said in court on Tuesday.
“When I got older, I realized it wasn’t right and I started feeling gross.”
The second stepdaughter said she did not go to the RCMP right away because she “didn’t want anyone to know” and felt “ashamed.”
When asked by defence lawyer Brunnen if anyone put her up to “these claims” the stepdaughter replied, “No.”
The retrial was originally scheduled to be tried by judge and jury but was altered to judge alone days before proceedings began.
This is the third time the women have testified in this matter, including the Cochrane preliminary trial three years ago, and the trial in the Alberta Courts in 2013.
The retrial is expected to be finished by the end of the week.
