A former Halifax teacher accused of sexually abusing two boys in the mid-1980s has elected not to take the stand at his trial in Nova Scotia Supreme Court.Poirier’s judge-alone trial got underway March 11 at the Halifax Law Courts.On Thursday, Justice Richard Coughlan denied a defence motion for a directed verdict on two charges involving one of the complainants.
The man said he kept his eyes closed throughout the assault but opened them as the assailant was leaving the room and recognized Poirier from his shadow.Defence lawyer Ian Hutchison argued that the judge should grant a directed verdict and dismiss the charges in relation to that complainant because of insufficient evidence on the essential element of identity.Coughlan said the test for a directed verdict had not been met.
The man said Poirier would pick him up at his Halifax home and drive him to his apartment in Highfield Park, where the teacher would assault him while watching pornographic videos. Poirier, of Halifax, was one of two seniors arrested in 2019 in Operation Apollo, an investigation that was opened in 2016 after several men reported they had been sexually abused as children by teachers and coaches in the Halifax area in the 1970s and 1980s.