Thursday, March 28, 2024

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Stuckless pleads guilty to more charges

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(Update)
The 65 year old man at the centre of the Maple Leaf Gardens sex abuse scandal has pleaded guilty to one hundred charges — including indecent assault, sexual assault and gross indecency. And some of these charges date back to 1965. Gordon Stuckless appeared in a Toronto courtroom Tuesday.

This was the first day of Gordon Stuckless’ second trial but ironically, it would have also been the 52nd birthday of the first victim who ever came forward in 1997 — Martin Kruze. He ended up throwing himself off the Bloor Viaduct after that first trial when Gordon Stuckless was sentenced to two years less a day. His brother Gary Kruze was in the courtroom though as were many other victims. This trial concerns 18 new victims who have come forward since the previous trial. One of them died of a drug overdose but his mother has been in court bringing those charges forward.

Today, Stuckless pled guilty to 100 charges but 8 other charges he pleaded not guilty to and that’s because they relate to a now obsolete charge of buggery and to weapons. And both of those he says are because that’s not his modus operandi.

He does admit that he sexually abused boys as young as 8 for a period of 20 years from 1965 to 1985 — those are the years that this case involves. He used his job as an usher at Maple Leaf Gardens and his other jobs — as a teacher at school and as a coach for a hockey team — and even at a dentists office and at a community centre and those positions of power to lure his victims. Here’s what his lawyer and some of his victims told us today outside court.

Ari Goldkind is Stuckless’ lawyer: “Mr. Stuckless — from the time that he was in jail — took very, very intensive therapy. The most serious of offenders, Mr. Stuckless was obviously flagged as someone who was a very high risk back in 2001. Mr. Stuckless made sure he saw the right therapists, the right doctors. And to this day — as you all may be aware — Mr. Stuckless continues to be chemically castrated to make sure that he is absolutely no risk to any young man in this city and this society.”

Allan Donnan was abused by Stuckless: “The man is 64-years old. If you think any of the victims are looking for something horrible to happen to Mr. Stuckless, then you are sadly mistaken. But I am not a victim, I am a survivor! The victim is the next person that’s offended because the system does nothing.”

Michael McTauge was abused by Stuckless: “I’m sitting here today. I’m bleeding inside. I bleed every day. The nightmares never go away. I’ve had counselling, I’ve seen psychriatrists, I’ve been on pills, everything. I see him now standing there and I’m cringing. It’s hard to look at him in the face. I want to jump over. What are you going to do? Put me in jail? Been there, done it!”

Gary Kruze is Martin Kruze’s brother: “He can reoffend anytime. I mean sure — he’s had chemical castration that sort of thing. But, that’s all smoke and mirrors. The root of the problem is that he’s a dangerous perpetrator — he perpetrated on hundreds and hundreds of innocent children. And we kind of equate it to murder. When the victim dies, the pain ends. With sexual abuse, it continues on for the rest of their lives. It’s a life sentence of pain.”

So in just over two weeks, on May 5th, the trial will start on those 8 remaining charges in front of a judge alone. But the assistant crown attourney also wants to try him for a dangerous offender status which would mean an indeterminent jail time. All of the victims agree that he should be labelled a dangerous offender. But his lawyer is opposed to that — he says Stuckless has been chemically castrated since 2001 and he hasn’t reoffended since then and that he’s no longer a danger to society.

 

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