The lead plaintiff in the class action lawsuit against the city of Saint John by those who say they were sexually abused by the late Kenneth Estabrooks has responded to an attempt from the city to block it from moving ahead.
The city is looking to appeal a judge’s decision to certify the class action and Bobby Hayes tells CHSJ News it’s sad that this has dragged on this long.
“This is a horrific thing what’s happened to a lot of kids that are now adults, and the damage that’s been done and hopefully the judge will see it the same way as the last judge and will take the next step to move forward in getting this finished,” says Hayes.
“These were kids, and the city of Saint John has allowed this to take place is pretty sad and then to continue to battle with the victims instead of moving forward and looking after them and being accountable for what they’ve done.”
Back in 2013, private investigators from Toronto hired by the city to look into the case revealed it found 263 people, mostly boys, maybe have been sexually abused by Estabrooks.
He was found to have continued to sexually abuse children after resigning from the police department and being quietly transferred to City Works at the time.
