Warning: This story contains details some readers may find disturbing
THUNDER BAY — A sexual assault survivor in the city’s east end shared disturbing details of what took place in a building that was supposed to be a safe haven for children more than 40 years ago and the fear of coming forward.
On Thursday, two more complainants testified in the trial against 64-year-old Wayne Gilberds in a Thunder Bay courtroom before Justice Chantal Brochu.
“[Wayne Gilberds] told me not to tell anyone because he could hurt me or my family and could make me disappear,” the complainant testified.
Gilberds has pleaded not guilty two counts of indecent assault on a female and two counts of indecent assault on a male.
The first complainant to testify on Thursday shared details of sexual assaults allegedly committed by Gilberds in the late 1970s at the Thunder Bay Boys and Girls Club in the East End, then known as the Wayside.
The complainant was six or seven when the first assault took place. According to the complainant’s testimony, Gilberds was a teenager at the time and estimated him to be 16 or 17.
“I would try to stick around the other people,” the complainant testified. “But the bathrooms were downstairs. He would already be downstairs and waiting or he would follow me downstairs.”
“Sometimes it was three times a week, sometimes it was twice a week,” the complainant testified to how often the assaults took place. “I would have to say it happened at least two or three times a week. Maybe more.”
During one attempted assault outside of the Wayside, the complainant testified to a railroad worker intervening, causing Gilberds to flee.
“I was crying all the way home,” the complainant testified. “[The railroad worker] picked me up and carried me a little way. He walked me right to my house and I told him I wasn’t going to tell my parents and if I get forced to tell my parents that I was going to kill myself. I was scared to tell anybody.”
The second complainant who testified on Thursday also shared details of being assaulted by Gilberds at the Wayside numerous times over the course of several years.
“It was numerous and each time it would progress, like more,” the complainant said. “Wayne would find a way to lure you from the group and take you downstairs to the backroom and do what he was doing.”
The complainant was also between six and seven when the assaults first happened.
The complainant also testified to being afraid of coming forward at that time because of threats by Gilberds.
“And him telling me that he would blow up my house if I told anybody,” the complainant said. “That he would place dynamite under my house. I couldn’t tell anybody. He said he would blow up my house with everybody in it.”
Gilberds was first arrested in March 2021 following an investigation by the Thunder Bay Police Service. One of the complainants testified to being contacted in 2018 by one of the other complainants over social media about the assaults, which resulted in police being contacted.
“I’ve waited over 45 years for this day,” one complainant testified. “And he will meet his maker. He will own up to everything he’s done.”
The trial is scheduled to resume on Friday.
