Article contentHe said students never went into the storage room because it was too small. He said they left their equipment at the door and he put it away.Article contentHutchins said his first recollection of the complainant was from the fall of 1991, when she was in his future wife Karen Johnston’s Grade 5 class.Article content“Karen pointed her out to me and said she was going to do some things for her because she had a difficult family life,” he said.Article contentThe complainant said Johnston and Hutchins were like an aunt and uncle to her. She said they sometimes drove her home from school and took her out to movies and dinners.Article contentBut Hutchins denied ever driving the girl home or taking her on social outings.Article contentThe girl attended Hutchins and Johnston’s wedding in July 1992 and invited Johnston to her high school graduation several years later. Hutchins said Johnston asked him to go to the graduation ceremony with her, so he did.Article contentArticle contentHe said he also remembers his wife bringing the complainant to their home once when she was about 18 or 19.Article contentThe complainant said that over the years, she confided in a few close friends and an intimate partner that she had been sexually abused by a teacher.Article contentShe disclosed as a contestant on a TV show that aired in November 2022 that she had been molested as a child. Over the next few months, she spoke about her experience in posts on Instagram.Article contentAfter a post in May 2023, she received a direct message from Johnston asking who had assaulted her. “It was your ex-husband, and we can talk about if you’d like,” she replied.Article contentShe and Johnston, who had separated from Hutchins in 2001, spoke several times before she contacted police in late June 2023.Article contentPolice announced in November 2023 that Hutchins had been charged with historical sexual offences involving the complainant and another woman.Article contentArticle contentUntil the spring of 2024, the woman said she could not remember whom she had disclosed Hutchins’s conduct to at school. After Johnston encouraged her to tell police it had been the principal, she said she realized she had in fact reported the abuse to Johnston.Article contentShe said she no longer trusted Johnston, who she felt was trying to protect herself. She gave police a new statement in May 2024.Article contentAt the start of the trial, the defence admitted Hutchins was the complainant’s gym teacher in grades 5 and 6.Article contentOn cross-examination, Hutchins said it was possible he also taught the girl in grades 3 and 4, “however, I don’t recall teaching her before Grade 5.”Article contentNeither side chose to call evidence from Johnston.Article content“These types of cases are very difficult for all parties who are involved with them,” Murphy said. “Courts often comment that they are among the most difficult that courts have to deal with. The accused does not have to establish their innocence. They have to prove nothing.
Former Halifax-area educator acquitted on historical sex charges
