While awaiting trial and held in a secure youth custody centre near London, one of the girls who later pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the deadly swarming of Kenneth Lee was forced to strip naked — despite a ministry directive against it.
That may be her ticket out of trouble. The operations manager of Woodview, which has been closed since last month, insisted he knew nothing about the strip searches of female youth that violated government policy — and only found out after an employee filled out a Crown questionnaire in August 2024.
But the very defensive Brennan Goman also claimed the majority of girls held in custody were “quite comfortable” during the mandatory strip searches and would even decline covering themselves with the towel. He also maintained that in the previous decade, contraband has been found six times during strip searches at the facility.
Justice David Rose is hearing a Charter challenge by the girl, who is seeking to have her manslaughter conviction stayed, alleging her rights were violated by the unlawful searches.
Youth worker Hasanati Alexander testified she strip searched the girl once while working at Woodfield in July 2023 and would routinely offer a towel to youth so they were never completely nude while different parts of their body are examined.
“At any point is the young person standing before you with no clothes and no towel?” asked Crown attorney Sarah De Filippis.
“Yes it has happened,” she replied. “Some young people will just go full out unclothed.”
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“In your training, were there any rules about the young person being completely unclothed when you conducted a strip search?” the prosecutor continued.
“No,” Alexander said.
But in fact, court heard, there was a 2019 directive by the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services that youth should never be in “complete undress.”
Court heard the girl, 14 at the time, had joined up with the marauding teens on the subway and later indirectly “instigated” the swarming of Lee when she stole booze from a homeless woman in a downtown parkette, just after midnight on Dec. 18, 2022.
Lee, 59, was attacked when he stepped in to protect his friend and in three waves of assault, was punched, kicked and stomped before he was fatally stabbed. This girl has pleaded guilty to beating the homeless man, but not wielding the weapon that killed him.
Three others have pleaded guilty. Rose has already sentenced two who pleaded to manslaughter: the first received 15 months of probation under an Intensive Support and Supervision Program after credit for 15 months of pre-sentence custody. The second was given the same amount of credit and sentenced to 21 months probation under the same program, which includes mandatory counselling for mental health and substance abuse issues.
Both were given credit for undergoing unlawful strip searches, with Rose quoting the Supreme Court decision that “they represent a significant invasion of privacy and are often a humiliating, degrading and traumatic experience for individuals subject to them.”
One girl who pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm has yet to be sentenced. Four more teens go on trial next year, three for second-degree murder and one for manslaughter.
The issue of naked strip searches was initially raised at the girls’ bail hearings in early 2023 when Goman was called as a witness.
“It was very clearly put to you that she was left completely naked,” charged her lawyer, Anne Marie Morphew.
Goman said he later questioned his staff and was assured they’d followed policy, and he only found out differently 18 months later when one of his employees admitted that for years, she’d been conducting searches where the youth is “totally nude” and would “spin around” for about 30 seconds.
Morphew accused him of then talking to that staff member — against the Crown’s instructions — to get her to change her story.
“You were letting her know that there was a problem,” the lawyer suggested, “and you want her to change her answers.”
“That’s completely inaccurate,” Goman replied.
The Charter application continues.