BC Supreme Court Awards $817,000 in Damages to Survivor in Civil Sexual Abuse Case

Hammerco Partner Kevin McLaren and Associate Serena Cheong have secured a judgment in the BC Supreme Court for a client who was groomed and sexually abused by an adult man, who was her neighbour and a member of the RCMP when the abuse occurred. Our client was 15 years old, and the defendant was in his thirties when the grooming and abuse started. As a result of this abuse, our client lost almost everything and three decades of her life to alcohol use disorder before achieving lasting sobriety in her late fifties.

Justice Francis found that the defendant’s version of events was “bizarre and far-fetched.” She found the defendant’s conduct, both at the time of the abuse and throughout the trial, to be callous and lacking in remorse or even acknowledgement. While on the witness stand, the defendant referred to this lawsuit as “extortion” and that the plaintiff was using the MeToo movement as an opportunity to make money. He also made gratuitous and irrelevant comments about the plaintiff’s sexual character and her parents’ sexual views.

Justice Francis awarded a total of $817,000 in damages, including $50,000 in punitive damages.

This decision is a strong denunciation of using rape myths to discredit a survivor’s credibility and highlights the importance of supporting survivors when they are ready to come forward and hold abusers accountable through civil courts.

Read the full decision here: Wells v Pound, 2025 BCSC 1295.