MacIntosh took boy to room: witness

A witness at the sexual abuse trial of a former Nova Scotia businessman said he sawErnest Fenwick MacIntosh take a boy into his bedroom when they both lived in the same boarding house in the 1970s.

Brent MacInnis, who played hockey with the Strait Pirates Junior B team in Port Hawkesbury, N.S.,between 1970 and 1975, said he lived in the same boarding house as MacIntosh.

One Saturday afternoon he saw MacIntosh take a boy, who looked about 10 years old, into his room, MacInnistestified Wednesday.

He said that boy is now one of the people claiming MacIntosh abused him.

MacIntosh, 67, is facing two trials on 36 charges, including gross indecency and indecent assault against six boys in eastern Nova Scotia between 1970 and 1977.

Also testifying Wednesday was Josie O'Connor, who was on the executive of thelocal Progressive Conservative riding association when MacIntosh ran in a provincial election in the 1970s.

She said that MacIntosh's cousin and campaign manager warned her that MacIntosh "liked little boys."

O'Connor said she then flew to Ottawa with the mother of two of the men who are now accusing MacIntosh of sexually assaulting them.

O'Connor said the woman was very concerned because MacIntosh was babysitting her boys while both she and her husband were away.

On Monday, a 48-year-old Guysborough County man testified that he was abused about 100 times by MacIntosh. The man said when he was about 10 years old, MacIntosh became a family friend. He said that roughhousing and tickling eventually turned into fondling.

The man, whose identity is protected by court order, said that MacIntosh would routinely perform oral sex on him.

On Tuesday, the man's younger brother testified that MacIntosh removed his pants and performed oral sex on him in three separate incidents in the 1970s when he was between the ages of nine and 12.

The case is being heard by in a Port Hawkesbury courtroom by a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge sitting alone.

The first charges against MacIntosh were laid in 1995. But he wasn't arrested until 12 years later, because he had moved to India a year before the first charge was laid.

MacIntosh was arrested in April 2007 near New Delhi, where he worked as a telecommunications specialist for 13 years. He was extradited to Canada two months later.