Parents concerned over son’s time in Hepburn care home

Al and Naomi Hawkins look back with concern at their son’s time living at Shepherd’s Villa.

Derek Hawkins lived in the Hepburn care home from 2003 until 2005. He died in 2011 at the age of 27.

Al called Derek’s time there “fairly tumultuous, to say the least.”

Derek Hawkins. (Naomi Hawkins/Submitted)

Naomi said that while Derek was at the villa, Brent Gabona — who recently pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual assault and two counts of sexual exploitation of a person with a disability from his time as an employee there — was Derek’s daily living assistant.

“Derek was with him 40 hours a week, one on one, for almost two years,” Naomi said, explaining the pair would spend all day together every day of the week. She said many of those hours are unaccounted for.

Naomi said Gabona would often take Derek with him to work in Waldheim, and from there the two would often leave for a few hours during the day.

“I don’t know where they would go from there,” Naomi said. “He could’ve been anywhere with him.”

Gabona was also the one in charge of bringing Derek to extracurricular activities like hockey games, or simply going with him to grab a cup of coffee.

During his time at Shepherd’s Villa, Derek’s behaviour changed. Al and Naomi said their son became more aggressive and violent over that time, beginning in the summer of 2004.

Derek was subject to a number of incident reports, they explained, with the two having to file a request for information just to get access to them.

Al expressed frustration at not being made aware of the extent of what their son was grappling with. He said the home only informed him and Naomi of some of the issues just before Derek was discharged.

The group home apparently had difficulty managing Derek’s violent and aggressive behaviour, which ultimately led to his discharge.

Those behavioural issues are something Al and Naomi said they never saw in their son before he lived at Shepherd’s Villa. Naomi said Derek had challenges, but prior to living at the home he was never violent and never previously tried to do any of the things documented in the reports.

“We just knew that something was wrong, and something that was going on at Shepherd’s Villa had changed Derek,” Al said.

Naomi said that before Derek lived at Sheperd’s Villa, he was very outgoing, especially considering his many medical problems and challenges.

He’d been born with renal failure and was on dialysis as a baby. When he was three, Derek received a kidney transplant, but continued to deal with further renal complications and medical issues over the years. He was also epileptic, and had the cognitive ability at around the level of a Grade 1 student.

His mom called Derek a “happy-go-lucky-type guy,” except when he wasn’t feeling well.

“He’d be the centre of attention when he walked in the room,” Naomi said, describing her son as very social and someone who liked to be out with others, doing what other kids his age were doing.

That’s how Naomi and Al said they raised him.

“Derek went to Shepherd’s Villa full of optimism and excitement, and left there just a forlorn soul,” Al said.

Al and Naomi said they asked question after question about Derek’s care during his time at the villa, trying to find out what was happening with their son from supervisors at the care home, case workers, management and the Ministry of Social Services.

“We raised all those questions. We asked for an investigation at the discharge meeting,” Al said.

The pair said they even brought Derek’s case before the provincial ombudsman in 2008, filing a complaint against Social Services for not providing adequate care for Derek. A year later, the complaint was decided in Derek’s favour.

After leaving Shepherd’s Villa, Derek’s life got harder, his parents say.

“He lived with a lot of anger after that,” Naomi said.

The parents said they couldn’t easily find care for Derek again because of the changes in his behaviour.

Nine years later, when the couple heard Gabona had turned himself in to police, Naomi said she was shocked to hear the news.

The pair said they called the RCMP in Rosthern the afternoon they learned Gabona had turned himself in, hoping to find out more information about what charges Gabona was facing and who he had confessed to assaulting.

They said the RCMP maintained at the time that Derek was not one of the victims Gabona confessed to harming.

Frustrated, the couple said they eventually made a complaint against the RCMP in Rosthern for not taking their concerns seriously. Since then, Al and Naomi said a case has been opened in Derek’s name.

Jessica Murphy, a media relations officer with the Saskatchewan RCMP, confirmed the investigation into Gabona and assault at the Hepburn care home is ongoing.

She added that the RCMP isn’t able to rule out more victims than those Gabona has pleaded guilty to assaulting already, and said police continue to investigate.

The couple said they have continued to support victims like Darryl Boguski since Gabona first confessed, attending every court appearance.

The pair now live in Alberta, and each court date means a six-hour drive each way.

“I think it’s the least that we can do for the future of special needs people and for the memory of Derek,” Naomi said.