A taxi driver with a troubled past is defending himself against accusations of indecent exposure in Penticton Provincial Court this week.
(SHANNON QUESNEL / iNFOnews.ca)
August 20, 2013 - 8:30 AM
PENTICTON - A taxi driver with a troubled past who admitted to having his genitals licked by a dog in a child's presence has been charged with two counts of exposing himself to children.
This was part of a recorded statement made by Roy Charles O'Donaghey to an investigator with the Keremeos RCMP detachment. His interview was recorded on a VHS tape sometime after his arrest in 2011. The same tape was played on a VCR at Penticton Provincial Court Monday morning in the first day of a two-day trial.
Crown attorney Catherine Crockett said O'Donaghey was arrested in 2011 for two counts of exposing his genitals to persons under 16, first to one boy on June 28, 2011 and then on Aug. 19, 2011. Both events took place in Keremeos.
The second boy told police while O'Donaghey babysat him, the older man pulled his shorts over to one side to make his genitals visible.
The older man was also charged for breaching a court order where he was to have no contact with one of the boys.
O'Donaghey has plead not guilty to all charges.
In his 2011 recorded interview O'Donaghey gave his account of what happened with one of the boys, to an investigator. He said his dog "stuffed his nose into my shorts," to lick his sores when one of the boys was at his home. The man also said one of the boys would jokingly expose his own penis. O'Donaghey said he ordered that child to put his clothes back on and told the child it was inappropriate.
The officer told O'Donaghey he was being unclear in his interview. At one point he said to the investigator "maybe something did happen. I can't tell you."
The officer said O'Donaghey had similar legal problems in the past with youth, one time in 1981 and another time in 1992. The investigator said O'Donaghey would do well for a long time then slip up and get involved with children.
O'Donaghey said he was raped when he was 10 years old and the experience changed him. He said whenever he gets urges around children he walks away.
The trial resumes Wednesday.
To contact a reporter for this story, to send photos or videos, email Shannon Quesnel at squesnel@infotelnews.ca, call 250-488-3065 or tweet @shannonquesnel1
News from © iNFOnews, 2013