Three more former students have filed lawsuits alleging they were abused by a former principal in the mid\u002D1960s to the early\u002D1980s.
That brings to four the number of lawsuits filed in B.C. Supreme Court against Cyril Bernard Portman. The first suit, filed in 2019 by Allan Carrigan, resulted in a settlement in January. The terms of the settlement cannot be disclosed.
“His form of dementia does not permit him to appreciate information he receives. He simply can no longer appreciate the world around him.” The first police complaint from the four plaintiffs was filed in 2015 with the RCMP detachment in Smithers, involving a student who attended Kildala while Portman was principal.
The abuse also occurred during a trip to a camp near Smithers, where Portman told the student to zip up his sleeping bag together with Portman’s sleeping bag and the student woke up during the night to find Portman’s hand down his shirt and under his pants, says the suit.