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Accused Name: Timothy Young Investigating Officer: OPP Officer Vanderwoude, Bancroft Detachment Victim Impact Statement: Noel Clark Efremov 1. Emotional Loss: I have lived everyday since approximately August 2005 until June 2006 under constant fear of actions by Mr. Young and his criminal activities against me and my husband I still fear for my life as I do not believe that Mr. Young will move on with his life and will still seek to retaliate against us even though we are moving from Cardiff. Many people within Cardiff know where we are moving to and it is easy for Mr. Young to locate us should he wish to retaliate further. I have been forthright in letting those involved in the criminal activities by Mr. Young against me that my past history is one that was steeped in early childhood sexual abuse. It has taken me many years to overcome many of the effects that abuse caused me. I had been sexually abused from the age of approximately 11 months old to 5 years of age. This includes emotional, physiological and psychological effects including restructuring how I view the world and those around me. It also includes letting go of old defence mechanisms that were used to protect myself from abusive situations in my past. This has been a long and arduous journey. People who have undergone extreme physical and sexual abuse respond to that abuse usually in one of three ways: flight, fright or freeze. My main method of protecting myself has been to "freeze". What this is, is similar to what you see when a doe stands stock still in the middle of the road at night as a speeding car comes toward her. Each death threat was like an out of control car coming toward me, each escalation of the death threats toward me was like the car speeding up and just stopping short only to again speed up getting closer and closer. It was my experience in the past that these types of incidents didn't 'go away' and as I look up something inside screams 'Oh God, not again!." To be continually exposed to threats of physical pain serves to control the person who is the target of an abusive persons hatred, and some abusers take satisfaction in this control. To be reintroduced to death threats has caused a recurrence of both symptoms of hyper-vigilence, certain types of flashbacks and unfortunately also the deadening of my sensation functions. Because the sexual abuse occurred at such a young age I was unable to identify that the physical pain was caused by others and physical sensations in my tiny mind meant pain = body. I did learn later that the pain did not originate within myself but was caused by the abusers. By that time it was too late and a hyper-vigilent state weakens my ability to be alerted to physical symptoms. This also causes me to be unable to sleep soundly since when my body begins to relax to go into a sleep stage the hyper-vigilence causes a shock reflex that will not allow muscle relaxation. My body reacts as if someone is ready to strike out at me and it causes me to scream in my sleep. My hearing also becomes hyper active to any sounds either within or outside of the house. Many of these symptoms had slowly abated after I began living with my husband, we are both victims of severe sexual abuse with elements of child pornography. My husband and I have always kept pretty much to ourselves, we are happy in the relationship we have made together and have created what we feel is a safe environment to flourish in. Mr. Young shattered that. The Criminal Justice has also shattered that in their refusal to protect us from Mr. Young and his outright fabrications I was 'taught' as a very young child not to display emotions either during the threatening process or during the physically painful acts during sexual abuse. Because of this, I feel I was ridiculed by the Crown Attorney's Office in their efforts to try to discount testimony by me in Mr. and Mrs. Young's false accusations and perjury against us in their attempt to mitigate the recurrent criminal actions of Mr. Young against my husband and myself. I personally do not feel the Victim's Impact Statement would be accurate concerning the damages done to both my husband and I without acknowledging that while we were victimized by Mr. Young's perjury concerning a crossbow incident that did not occur, and his wife's complicity in the perjury, we were then re-victimized most unfortunately the Criminal Justice System itself. I was taught very well as a child that to say anything concerning abuses against you that you will not be believed, that you will be told that it was you who caused the abuse, that it will cause a loved one being taken away. It truly saddens me that in speaking out as to why Mr. Young decided to harass and threaten us, that it was in retaliation for telling him we would not tolerate him selling drugs to kids, we were not believed, we were told we caused the problem, and I was threatened by the police that if we did not mediate with our abuser, Mr. Young, that my loved one, Andy, would be arrested and taken away. It saddens me that this has also been my experience of the Criminal Justice System. It saddens me that it has again been my experience that it is speaking the truth that causes more trouble than going along with a lie. 2. Physical Injuries: While I did not suffer physical injuries myself I have seen the physical effects of Mr. Young's assaults and harassments in my husband. My husband began to have severe migraine headaches as a result of the stress caused by Mr. Young's criminal behaviours. My husband's migraines had abated considerably once we moved up to the Bancroft area. It was only rarely that they occurred and they had improved so much that we did not seek to continue his disability benefits. They began recurring with a vengeance around late September, early October 2005 as Mr. Young's criminal activities increased against us. The migraines would last for 3 to 4 days and we would be confined to the bedroom for those periods of time. We had to put blankets over the bedroom windows because any light sources cause the migraines to increase. Both light and noises aggrivate the condition so during these periods there was little regular activity that would be done within the confines of the house. These were occurring on a weekly to week and a half basis and necessitated Andy having to reapply for disability benefits. Unfortunately the medications required to control the migraines are very expensive and not covered under the prescription portion of the disability benefits. He was unable to eat properly during these periods and I have seen his weight decrease by at least 50 lbs since November 2005. Mr. Young also assaulted Andy by kicking him in the lower back that causes periodic back pain when he is operating our mobile saw mill. 3. Financial Impact: As a result of Mr. Young's criminal activities we have lost our home in Cardiff. After Mr. Young almost burned down our garage I felt that the police were either unable for unwilling to protect Andy and I, our property or our pets from Mr. Young's continual death threats, harassment and vandalism. We intended to take out a small bank loan to do some minor repairs to the house and put it on the market. Homes in Cardiff were selling for an average of $75,000-$80,000. We had purchased the house as an investment to fix up and resell to build a house on land we own. When I stated that I did not feel it was in my best interest to mediate with a man who was escalating his death threats and criminal behaviour I was told that if we did not mediate than the police would arrest Andy. When questioned, the police said they would arrest Andy for 'putting up a security light'. This was on November 4, 2005. Since we chose not to negotiate with Mr. Young, Officer Moore came and arrested my husband on approximately November 24th, 2005. As a result we were unable to obtain a bank loan to do the minor repairs to the house in Cardiff and put it on the market. The continual harassment caused us to lose a significant amount of jobs that were lined up for the fall of 2005. Mr. Young's continued harassment, assaults and vandalisms also caused us to be unable to work the mobile saw mill as he had done significant damage to the sawmill while it was housed in Cardiff over the winter. The recurrence of migraine and cluster headaches as a result of the stress that my husband suffered also factored into the lost wages. Andy had to go back on disability and as a result of the wait involved in the reapplication we were unable to make even the minimum house mortgage payments. The Bank did not honour the insurance policy we had with them and began foreclosure proceedings in April 2006 before we even received Andy's disability approval. We had to put the house on the market for $60,000 in an effort to facilitate a very quick sale. Damages to our car as a result of Mr. Young's vandalism to it cost $3500. The financial damages that Mr. Young has done to us is immeasurable. |