Horne sex trial adjourned until January

The trial of former Nunavut teacher and convicted sex offender Ed Horne was adjourned Wednesday, with all parties expected to return to the Iqaluit courthouse in January.

Horne, 64, who taught in a number of eastern Arctic communities in the 1970s and 1980s, faces 10 sex-related charges including buggery and gross indecent assault.

He was previously convicted on 20 similar charges in 2000, and pleaded guilty to eight charges in 1987.

He was arrested in 2005 on the latest round of charges, stemming from complaints from former students in Cape Dorset, Sanikiluaq, Kimmirut and Iqaluit.

Horne is expected to take the stand when the trial resumes Jan. 24.

During the trial, whichstarted Monday in the Nunavut Court of Justice, Crown prosecutor Judy Chan presented her case through the testimony of four witnesses, all former students of Horne who allege they were sexually abused by the teacher.

On Wednesday, Chan also presented a "similar fact evidence application." If approved, it would allow the court to consider the circumstances surrounding Horne's previous convictions.

Chan said admitting these prior convictions into the court would allow her to show a pattern of conduct.

Justice Robert Kilpatrick, who is overseeing the judge-only trial,will consider Chan's application and make a decision.

Defence grills witnesses

A court-ordered ban prohibits the publication or broadcasting of details that could identify the victims.

In cross-examining the last of the Crown's witnesses Wednesday morning, defence lawyer Tom Boyd asked the man as he did with the previous witnesses why he did not press charges against Horne until years after the abuse took place, when they had heard of other victims receiving compensation.

Boyd noted that in a statement to police, the last witness said he noticed people in his community buying new snowmobiles with compensation money.

Boyd asked the manwhether it was around that time that he called police and said Horne had abused him too.

The man said yes, but also testified that he had tried to alert police much earlier, around the time the abuse took place.

The police came to his house, the witness said,but they became annoyed because the witness's mother was drunk. Police thentold him to go to sleep, the man testified.

On Tuesday, the witness wept on the stand as he told the court of his experiences with Horne, dating back to when the man was 10 years old.

The witness said he and two young friends were at Horne's house because the teacher had new video games and allowed the boys to play them.

The man recounted how Horne fondled him and simulated anal intercourse with him.

Previous Crown witnesses testified that Horne would sexually abuse them at his home, in the school shower and in the school staff room.

Boyd has spent the last three days questioning all the witnesses thoroughly about their recollection of events.

At the beginning of the trial, Boyd suggested that it's improbable if not impossible for the alleged incidents of abuse to have occurred on the dates that the witnesses claim.