Calgary Herald

Judge to rule on alleged sex assault by nurse

Boy, 13, claims genitals touched

- DARYL SLADE dslade@calgaryher­ald.com Twitter.com/heraldcour­t

A judge will decide next week whether a male nurse at Alberta Children’s Hospital intentiona­lly sexually assaulted a 13- year- old boy or if any touching of the boy was inadverten­t during a head- to-toe assessment.

Defence lawyer Balfour Der said in his final argument on Wednesday that his client, Drew Legary, may have brushed the boy in the groin area briefly during the assessment on Sept. 6, 2011, but there was no sexual intent.

“The defence says if there was touching, it was inadverten­t or accidental,” Der told Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Rosemary Nation.

“It’s entirely consistent that the boy could have been touched at that time. That seems to accord with all the evidence. But the question is, if Mr. Legary goes to sexually assault the boy, why leave the door open? An open door leaves full view of the room.”

The boy told police in his statement just days after the alleged incident that the nurse touched him in his private area for one to two seconds and brought up some sexual issues later that he was uncomforta­ble discussing.

Crown prosecutor Sarah Stewart argued that if the boy needed an assessment, Legary should have told other medical staff or at least charted the procedure afterwards.

“He decided he’d do the assessment, but the concern he had, he didn’t express to anyone,” Stewart argued. “This is a fairly invasive assessment. If Legary was looking out for the health of the boy, it’s hard to believe he wouldn’t discuss it.

“His intention was to touch the boy in a sexual manner, it wasn’t just to see if he was OK.”

Legary, a four- year veteran nurse at the hospital at the time, denied any sexual intentions. He said he felt the assessment was necessary as the boy had not been improving and he was checking to see if there was an infection elsewhere on his body by checking lymph nodes.

He has been suspended without pay since his arrest a few days after the alleged incident.

Nation will give her verdict next Wednesday.

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