Lawsuits shed light on allegations against former teacher and coach

Court documents shed more light on multiple allegations against Michael Patrick McNutt, a former Halifax-area teacher and volunteer hockey coach.

The 66-year-old Halifax man is facing 27 charges in relation to alleged sexual assaults against more than a dozen youths in the 1970s and 1980s in the Halifax area.

McNutt is facing 14 counts of gross indecency and 13 counts of indecent assault. He returns to Dartmouth provincial court on Feb. 27.

Six civil lawsuits pending

Meanwhile, six civil lawsuits alleging sexual abuse are pending in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Halifax against McNutt. Each person suing is seeking an undisclosed amount in damages.

In one suit, one Halifax man — a student who played in the Halifax Hawks Minor Hockey Association — alleges McNutt sexually abused him close to 100 times at an arena and at a Halifax school between 1985 and 1989.

Those acts, the man claims, left him feeling afraid, shocked, confused, dirty, ashamed and embarrassed.

The man alleges the first incident of sexual touching happened in a changing room when he was 11 or 12 while McNutt was working as a substitute teacher at Westmount Elementary and Junior High School in Halifax.

"Following the incident, Mr. McNutt began calling (the complainant) at home frequently," the court documents say.

"Mr. McNutt would claim to be calling about hockey if (the plaintiff's) parents answered the phone. However, when (the plaintiff) would pick up the phone, Mr. McNutt would make sexually suggestive comments. He alluded to there being a big secret between himself and (the plaintiff) as a result of the incident and coached (the plaintiff) on what to say to his parents to explain the frequent calls."

After the incident, the student began to withdraw and felt very confused and guilty about what had happened, he said.

According to the man, McNutt cultivated a relationship of trust with him in his position as a teacher and hockey coach.

That man is also suing the Halifax Regional School Board, now the Halifax Regional Centre for Education, and the Halifax Hawks Minor Hockey Association.

The suit alleges the school board and the hockey association were responsible for McNutt's actions and failed to protect him from being sexually assaulted by McNutt.

In a statement of defence, the school board said it has no knowledge whether the allegations made by the man against McNutt are true.

The board also said it has no knowledge of any assault, or sexual assault, as alleged in the statement of claim and that any such acts were not conducted in the course of McNutt's employment and were not authorized by the board.

McNutt denies allegations in statements of defence

In its statement of defence, the Halifax Hawks Minor Hockey Association said that the alleged misconduct by McNutt occurred prior to him being associated with the Halifax Hawks. It asks that the suit be dismissed with costs.

In a second lawsuit, another former student of Graham Creighton Junior High School alleges McNutt sexually assaulted him between 1985 and 1987.

"Following the sexual assault, Mr. McNutt threatened the plaintiff with physical and reputational harm to the plaintiff and his family," that man's 2017 lawsuit alleged.

That man claims that he reported the sexual assault to the school guidance counsellor and the principal at Graham Creighton Junior High School in Cherry Brook "but they refused to believe him and told him that he was lying."

McNutt has filed statements of defence saying the sexual acts and assaults in the complaints never happened.

The allegations in the lawsuits have not been tested in court.