Man Claims He Was ‘Raped Straight’

VANCOUVER, B.C. (CN) - For 35 years, a man claims in court, he suffered from the memory of a prison guard allowing five inmates to rape him at a British Columbia prison when he was put through a "scared straight" program after stealing a television from a neighbor as a teenager.

Plaintiff B.E.S. claims in British Columbia Supreme Court that he was 13 or 14 when he and two friends were caught by police after an "unplanned and poorly executed" theft of the television.

Plaintiff was put through the program offered at Oakalla Prison, "which was intended to intimidate and frighten young persons at risk of engaging in unlawful activities by exposing them to harsh prison conditions and living conditions," he says in the complaint.

B.E.S. claims he was driven to the prison and handed over to defendant Roderick MacDougall, who has been accused of sexually abusing numerous inmates during his years as a prison guard. B.E.S. claims MacDougall locked him in a cell with five inmates, who tried to force him to perform fellatio on one of them while MacDougall watched and laughed. Then, B.E.S. claims, the inmates took turns raping him.

He claims that MacDougall then locked him in a solitary confinement cell and told him, "'That's what's going to happen to little fuckers like you.'"

When MacDougall let him out of the cell, he said, "'Nobody's going to believe you,'" according to the complaint.

The plaintiff, now 50, says he told no one about the rapes for 35 years and now suffers from nightmares, sleeplessness, depression, addiction and has attempted suicide.

He seeks punitive damages from MacDougall and Her Majesty the Queen in right of British Columbia. He is represented by Jason Gratl in Vancouver.

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