Former
teacher
faces
23
more
sex
charges
Some
of
the
allegations
filed
in
North
Vancouver,
covering
25
years,
involve
children
Jonathan
Fowlie,
Vancouver
Sun
Published: Friday,
August
10,
2007
NORTH VANCOUVER - A former acting teacher and TV director was charged Thursday with a further 23 sex-related crimes, some of which allegedly involved children.
Michael John Berry, who spent 22 years teaching students, including adolescents, at North Vancouver's Capilano College, was already facing six criminal charges ranging from possession of child pornography to gross indecency.
He now faces a total of 29 counts dealing with pornography, or sex-related crimes such as assault, touching or indecency.
Filed in North Vancouver Provincial Court, the 23 new charges cover 25 years from the 1970s to 2002.
The charges allege that Berry indecently or sexually assaulted another man, several women and two unknown female children. They also allege several counts of gross indecency, as well as two counts of sexual touching of a child under the age of 14.
Members of the RCMP integrated child exploitation (ICE) team have been working for almost three years on the case, though no one at the unit could be reached Thursday to comment.
In an earlier interview, Sgt. Janis Gray, who leads the team, said the Berry case has been the biggest faced since the team's inception in February 2004.
"This one file has [occupied] a large majority of my resources," Gray said last year, explaining that at that time her team had hired two extra civilian employees just to help with the one investigation.
Berry, who is now almost 70, used to rent half a duplex in Horseshoe Bay, where police say they confiscated thousands of images of child pornography while executing a search warrant in May 2005. Officers involved in the case have alleged there was so much evidence in Berry's home at the time it took a moving truck to carry it all away.
At the time of the initial arrest, police also said they believed Berry may have made some of the images himself and issued a public plea for potential victims, saying there could have been "hundreds."
Berry was initially only charged with possession of child pornography, though last March the Crown added five counts relating to sexual offences alleged to have occurred in West Vancouver in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The trial for the first six charges was scheduled to begin this fall.
Berry taught Acting for the Camera to youths at Capilano College's continuing education department from 1981 to February 2003.
Berry also taught Acting for the Camera and Introduction to Directing in the college's film department until March 2005.
A spokesman with the college could not be reached to comment Thursday.
In addition to working at Capilano College, Berry also used to run an ice cream parlour bearing his name in Horseshoe Bay.
His directing credits reportedly include work on The Beachcombers, Neon Rider and Danger Bay.
jfowlie@png.canwest.com
