Oct 22, 2008 - 06:11 AM

By Jeff Mitchell

DURHAM -- Over and over, the pattern was the same.

He would befriend the boys and their parents. He'd gain their trust. Over time he would be given more access to the children, taking them for day trips, tutoring them, eventually encouraging them to come for sleepovers.

That's when the attacks occurred.

The evidence is irrefutable; it's there in the dozens of pictures and in the hours of video: Jeremy Pike, molesting those boys. The children don't cry out or struggle -- indeed, they appear to be asleep.

A judge reviewed those images as she considered an appropriate sentence for Mr. Pike, who this year -- nearly three years after his original arrest -- pleaded guilty to eight counts of sexual interference, along with child porn charges. In court Mr. Pike's lawyer wondered aloud how cognizant any of those sleeping children were of what had happened. He wondered just how traumatized the boys -- six of them whose identities are known, their average age six to seven -- actually had been.

This is the sort of discussion that occurred as the justice system ground toward Jeremy Pike's day of reckoning.

When that day arrived in late September Ontario Court Justice Mary Teresa Devlin rejected the notion that the fact the boys appeared to be unconscious might somehow mitigate the horror perpetrated upon them: " . . . (T)he children were repeatedly abused when they were most vulnerable and completely defenceless," she said. "Moreover, by committing the assaults while the children slept, Jeremy Pike increased the likelihood of being able to continue his criminal behaviour without detection."

Justice Devlin sentenced Jeremy Pike to 14 years in prison.

It began as an investigation into allegations made by three young boys, all brothers. Durham police were told the boys -- then aged 14, 10 and six -- had been abused between 2001 and 2005 by Mr. Pike, who had met the family while living in their Bowmanville neighbourhood and was soon spending time with the boys, babysitting them and taking them on outings to places like Canada's Wonderland.

The original allegations were explosive, especially given Mr. Pike's employment as a Grade 5 teacher at Glen Street Public School in Oshawa (no evidence was ever tendered Mr. Pike had assaulted students; he was suspended upon his arrest and eventually fired).

"The fact he was a Grade 5 teacher caused us concern right from the beginning," said Detective Andy Bussanich, who with Detective Randy Norton took over the file.

"We had a hunch there was more to this case," he said. "We were just waiting for the break to come."

Mr. Pike was arrested on a Friday and was sitting in jail, awaiting a bail hearing the following Monday, when that break came: A tipster had found a duffel bag containing various items, including a DVD that appeared to depict the accused man molesting a child.

The source told the cops the bag was sitting on the front porch of the house. The detectives scrambled to obtain two search warrants -- one for Mr. Pike's Bowmanville house, the other for his father's house in Clarington. It was late afternoon and there was no justice of the peace on duty at the courthouse, so they had to contact a JP by fax in an attempt to get the warrants.

"It was almost surreal," Det. Norton said.

"We went from zero to 60 in a few seconds."

The contents of the duffel bag confirmed the cops' worst fears: there were more victims.

"We knew there was more to it but we didn't know the extent of it until we got back and popped one of the tapes in," Det. Norton said.

"Our jaws dropped. We couldn't believe what we were seeing."

Det. Bussanich, meantime, was sifting through dozens of photographs and documents seized during the searches. There were numerous photos of Mr. Pike, working in his job as a youth activity director on a cruise ship, posing with boys on his lap. There were thousands of pictures and video files downloaded from Internet child porn sites, as well as text stories depicting child abuse. There were applications Mr. Pike had filled out to adopt or act as a foster parent, specifying his desire to care for young boys.

"In our view," Det. Bussanich said, "we had a serial predator who had been doing this for an extended time -- years."

Bit by bit the case was pieced together, including pictures and video of Mr. Pike engaged in sexual activity with eight boys, six of whom were identified.

He has steadfastly refused to identify the other two boys.

"It's frustrating," Det. Norton said of the two as yet unnamed children. "You know there are victims out there and you don't know who they are.

"These victims are living with a dark secret. It's our responsibility to get them help."

Throughout the months and years his case took to make its way through the justice system, Jeremy Pike sat mute. A number of lawyers spoke on his behalf, most recently Eric Lewis, who was counsel of record when Mr. Pike pleaded guilty last May and during his sentencing hearing.

It was as the sentencing hearing wound down that Mr. Pike stood in the prisoner's dock and read from two handwritten sheets of paper.

"My deepest apologies and sympathies go out to each family for the anger, betrayal, pain and sorrow I have caused," he intoned. "You entrusted me with your precious ones and I betrayed that trust."

Mr. Pike said that during his time in custody he had found God and the solace of faith.

"God has forgiven me and I have prayed and now ask for your forgiveness," he said, as the parents of his victims looked on.

Mr. Lewis had argued for a sentence that, if accepted by the judge, would have seen Mr. Pike held accountable for his crimes with little more than the time he'd served in pretrial custody. Prosecutor Kent Saliwonchyk was a world apart in his submissions, arguing 14 years was the appropriate sentence for the "monstrous" acts perpetrated on the children.

When Justice Devlin pronounced the double-digit sentence, Mr. Pike sat staring into space as if stunned. The parents looking on were silent, some weeping, some gripping the benches upon which they sat so tightly their knuckles showed white.

The tension that had been building in the small courtroom only grew as a handcuffed Jeremy Pike was led out a back door.

Then he was gone, leaving behind a legacy of trust betrayed.