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WARNING: This article contains details of abuse.
A woman is on trial this week, accused of abusing residents at the group home where she worked in Wilkie, Sask.
Jaclyn Elias, 38, was fired from the Prairie Branches group home after the allegations arose two years ago in the small community about 50 kilometres southwest of North Battleford.
She is charged with assault, sexual assault, sexual assault with a weapon and uttering threats over a roughly one-year period leading up to Feb. 28, 2024.
The incidents allegedly involved four residents of the group home, which houses adults with intellectual disabilities. They all use wheelchairs, are non-verbal and require help with all of their daily care needs, from getting dressed to washing and eating.
Elias’s trial in North Battleford provincial court began on Monday. The identities of the complainants are subject to a publication ban.
Two of the witnesses so far were people who worked with Elias. One of them, Holly Ennis, said she only worked directly with Elias twice, including during a 12-hour shift in February 2024 when Elias was her trainer.
Ennis said she saw Elias “dry humping” a resident during that shift, but because she was fairly new, she wondered, “What should I say? What do I do? I just kind of brushed it off at first.”
A bit later in her testimony, she was asked about how she felt. Ennis said she felt shocked and said she felt her “due diligence as a caregiver is to stand up for his rights.”
On another shift, Elias asked her to help her move one of the residents and she saw Elias put her hand over the resident’s mouth and part of his nose and say, “You’re so cute. I could kill you,” Ennis testified.
She said the look on the resident’s face was “very scary” and that he had a panicked look in his eyes.
“This individual cannot say anything or move to get away,” Ennis said.
After that, Elias put her breasts in the resident’s face and told him to suckle her, Ennis said.
Sexual comments
Another witness was Lisa Knuff, who said she worked 12-hour shifts regularly alongside Elias.
Knuff said she saw Elias repeatedly rub her breasts in residents’ faces and make sexual comments such as, “You like that, don’t you?” and refer to them as perverts.
On one occasion, she said she saw Elias use a stick to poke at the groin area of a male resident. She described the stick as being a plastic tool that was part of the lift apparatus.
With another resident who constantly drooled, Knuff said she saw Elias stuff a washcloth into the person’s mouth to stop the drool.
She said she also saw Elias stick her fingers into a resident’s mouth and wiggle them around, saying sexually, “You like that, don’t you?”
Co-worker felt ‘horrible’
What she saw made her feel “horrible,” Knuff testified under questioning by Crown prosecutor Danielle Elder.
“I wouldn’t talk to nobody about it,” Knuff said. “I was afraid … felt pretty alone.”
She said she didn’t come forward right away because she thought she was the only one who had seen the incidents, and was worried about overreacting. But when another co-worker (another employee who is scheduled to testify Tuesday) came to her with concerns, she wanted to report what she had seen “because it was very wrong,” Knuff said.
During cross-examination, defence lawyer Meagan Ward challenged Knuff and asked her if she and the co-worker made their reports because they wanted to see Elias get fired.
“That’s totally incorrect,” Knuff replied.
Ward also asked Knuff if the resident she saw getting poked in the groin could feel anything.
Knuff said she didn’t know what he would be able to feel through an adult diaper and lining, and that while he was yelling when it happened, she couldn’t say what he was yelling about.
The trial, which is being heard by Judge Ian Mokuruk, continues Tuesday.
If you’re in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911. For support in your area, you can look for crisis lines and local services via the Ending Sexual Violence Association of Canada database.
