Former B.C. teacher, 85, guilty of indecent assaults on his Grade 6 students

An empty hallway is seen at a school in Vancouver, on Sept. 5, 2014. (Jonathan Hayward / The Canadian Press)

NORTH VANCOUVER — A B.C. provincial court judge has found an 85-year-old former elementary school teacher guilty of nine sex-related charges, most involving his former Grade 6 students.

There were 12 complainants, all male, who said Brian Moore assaulted them when they were children, ranging in age from seven to 12 years old.

• Read more: 12 charges laid against former teacher for historical sex offences, North Vancouver RCMP say

The trial heard that Moore was a teacher at a North Vancouver elementary school and often took some of his students on swimming, water-skiing and snow skiing trips.

Judge Robert Hamilton says in his decision posted online Friday that there was a “remarkable similarity in the evidence” from the former students, including that they were naked during many activities with their teacher and that he sexually touched them.

Most of the allegations spanned six years, from 1976 until 1982 and 11 men who came forward are now in their 50s, while the other man is in his 20s and considered Moore a grandfather figure when he was assaulted at age seven or eight.

The court found Moore guilty of eight counts of indecent assault and one count of touching for a sexual purpose, while he was found not guilty of three other charges of indecent assault.

Moore called no evidence in his defence at trial.

The judge noted that there were few documents filed as exhibits and that the Crown’s case would fall on the testimony of the complainants and similar fact evidence.

“Short of some compelling evidence of collusion, it is very difficult to conclude that the complainants were inventing their evidence about what they say happened to them,” the ruling says.

The ruling says Moore was insistent that the boys strip naked while he conducted different activities with them.

“I found Mr. Moore’s behaviour to be a form of grooming the boys for other more intrusive acts allegedly committed against the boys by Mr. Moore,” the judge says in his ruling.

In addition to the criminal prosecution, a class-action civil case has been filed against Moore and the North Vancouver School District.

Moore will be sentenced at a later date.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 4, 2025.