Douglas Agyeh, a citizen of Ghana, made a brief appearance at the Montreal courthouse on Wednesday.
A man who is alleged to have fled from the U.S. on the eve of the start of his trial in Massachusetts, where he is charged with sexually assaulting two 15-year-old girls at a school where he worked, made his first appearance Wednesday at the Montreal courthouse on an extradition request.
Douglas Agyeh, 43, made a brief appearance before Superior Court Justice Pierre Labrie at the Montreal courthouse. He informed the judge that he does not have a lawyer and has had difficulty reaching any through legal aid. He is currently detained for trying to enter Canada without a passport.
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According to an affidavit filed by the U.S. government, Agyeh is alleged to have tried to enter Canada just as his trial was set to begin on Jan. 30. He was arrested by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) on Jan. 28.
The affidavit does not mention where Agyeh tried to enter Canada, but it appears his arrest was handled by CBSA officers based at Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport in Dorval.
In 2021, Agyeh was arrested after two girls at a school for troubled youths in Barrington, Mass. filed complaints with police alleging they were sexually assaulted by him. Agyeh, a citizen of Ghana, was required to surrender his passport when he was released on bail in 2021.
According to the affidavit, one girl told investigators that “Agyeh was one of her ‘trusted staff,’ which she said meant she could talk to him and tell him things she wouldn’t tell other staff members. She first met Agyeh while in a restraint — where a child is physically held during an outburst to prevent them from harming themselves or others — then got to know him over time.”
The girl told police she could not fall asleep in her bed and preferred to lie on the floor of her room near the door.
“Agyeh would sit in the common area right outside of her room. Then, Agyeh began pulling a chair into the doorway of her room while she was laying there. He would try to hold her hand and would touch her breasts and ‘private area,’ which made her uncomfortable. He would always give her a dirty look before he would start touching her, and that’s how she knew what he wanted to do,” the affidavit states.
The girl alleged that Agyeh sexually assaulted her multiple times during August and September 2021. According to the affidavit, some of the abuse was recorded by one of the school’s surveillance cameras.
The other girl said she was in the school’s laundry room when Agyeh allegedly sexually assaulted her on June 12, 2021.
The girl told investigators “she was folding laundry and a staff member by the name of Douglas (Agyeh) offered to help her. Agyeh picked up a pair of her underwear and told her he liked the way they looked. She thought that was weird and took the underwear from him. He then put his hand down the front of her pants, grabbed the underwear she was wearing and pulled them up so he could see them. His hand touched her vagina over her underwear when he did this.”
Agyeh’s case involving the extradition request will return to court on Feb. 17.
pcherry@postmedia.com
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