A two-day trial into sex offences allegedly perpetrated by a former minister in the Anglican Church of Canada in the 1980s wrapped up Tuesday in Brantford.
The alleged victim, whose identity is protected under a publication ban, testified that he didn’t feel he could say no to Reverend George Ferris given his position as a minister.
Ferris is charged with two counts of sexual assault and one count of sexual exploitation in connection with a sexual relationship he allegedly maintained for several years with a then-teenage male while a minister at St. James Anglican Church in Paris.
Ferris, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges, left that church in 1991, continuing to minister in Waterloo, Walkerton, Paris and Six Nations before retiring from St. James Anglican Church in Cambridge in 2011.
He continues to live in Cambridge.
Crown prosecutor George Orsini called the incident “a classic case of a person in authority exercising his authority over a victim,” but defence lawyer John Renwick suggested the alleged victim knew what he was getting into.
“There was nothing in his evidence that he was coerced,” he said.
“He was a willing participant.”
The alleged victim also testified that he phoned Ferris in 2006 and asked for money in exchange for continued silence, after which Ferris paid him $5,000.
Orsini questioned why Ferris would have made that payment had he done nothing wrong.
Ferris did not testify in his own defence.
The judge’s decision in the case was reserved until Nov. 19.
