Former teacher pleads guilty to sexually assaulting boys
Fri May 02, 2008

By: By Jeff Mitchell

OSHAWA -- The Crown is seeking a sentence of 14 years for Jeremy Pike, the former Oshawa school teacher who pleaded guilty to 10 charges relating to assaults on six boys.

Emotions ran high in an Oshawa courtroom Friday as details of the horrific sexual abuse visited on several young boys by Mr. Pike were read into the record.

Mothers wept -- one of them suddenly leaping from her seat and rushing from the courtroom -- while others sat in stunned silence, staring at the accused man or cradling their heads in their hands as the crimes of Jeremy Pike were detailed for an Ontario Court judge.

Mr. Pike, 35, pleaded guilty to 10 charges relating to assaults on six boys, some of them as young as six years old when they were abused in incidents that ranged from sexual touching to sodomy. The victims included three brothers from one family.

The charges, relating to assaults dating back several years, consisted of eight counts of sexual interference and one each of making and possessing child pornography.

Although police have identified six victims, the identities of two young boys Mr. Pike filmed himself abusing haven't been conclusively determined, Crown counsel Kent Saliwonchyk told Justice Mary Teresa Devlin.

A significant part of the Crown's evidence, apart from accounts from the abused children, was more than 13 hours of video police seized at Mr. Pike's Bowmanville home when they arrested him in July of 2005, after allegations first surfaced. The video and still photos depict Mr. Pike with young boys who appear to be asleep.

Although it's difficult to believe the boys would have slept through some of the sexual contact, there's no evidence they were given any substances to knock them out, Mr. Saliwonchyk said.

"The children on most occasions remember little, if anything, of most of the assaults," he said.

As part of the sentencing process Justice Devlin viewed a portion of the seized video, but she did so in a sealed courtroom without court staff. The public was excluded, as was Mr. Pike.

In a statement of fact read into the record following Mr. Pike's guilty plea, Mr. Saliwonchyk described Mr. Pike's pattern of meeting and befriending the parents of young children, gaining their confidence and eventually access to the boys, whom he would babysit, tutor and take on outings. He even coached the T-ball team of one of his young victims, Mr. Saliwonchyk said.

Mr. Pike was a Grade 5 teacher at Glen Street Public School in Oshawa at the time of his arrest. His lawyer, Eric Lewis, said none of the victims were students of Mr. Pike.

The bespectacled Mr. Pike, wearing a white T-shirt and with his long hair bound in a ponytail, sat seemingly impassive throughout the hearing, his face and body language betraying no emotion. That was in contrast to relatives of his victims, who gasped and shed tears as details of the shocking assaults were read into the record.

A sentence hearing will take place for Mr. Pike later in May.