A timeline of events

CHARLOTTETOWN – In January 2015, a P.E.I. businessman was accused of sexually assaulting his 35-year-old daughter. Police said the woman, who has severe autism and is virtually non-verbal, made the allegation through a disputed method known as facilitated communication. Independent psychological testing found the woman was incapable of making the allegations attributed to her.

A timeline of key events:

2001 — Virtually non-verbal P.E.I. woman with severe autism and an intellectual disability enters group home in Charlottetown operated by Queens County Residential Services. She is 21 years old.

2013 — Father says he expressed concerns to QCRS about deteriorating conditions.

2013 — First reports from group home staff that the woman is making inappropriate sexual comments through facilitated communication (FC), parents say.

October 2014 — Parents say they raised questions about sexual comments made through FC.

Jan. 19, 2015 — Staff member files an internal report with a supervisor saying he learned through FC that the woman was feeling upset because her father kept her up “playing with her vagina.”

Jan. 21, 2015 — Another staff member files a report saying she used FC to learn the woman is hitting herself because: “My dad touches my private parts … on the weekends.”

Jan. 22, 2015 — Group home manager files a complaint with the RCMP.

Jan. 23, 2015 — RCMP question the woman with the help of two facilitators. Using FC, a staff member says the woman alleges her father had sexually abused her on a regular basis since she was 13.

Feb. 7, 2015 — Father arrested and told to appear in court in May to face two charges: sexual assault and sexual exploitation of a disabled person. He is never formally charged.

Feb. 9, 2015 — Woman’s mother begins her efforts to visit her daughter, but is met with resistance from the group home and provincial officials for the next six months, according to court files.

March 13, 2015 — RCMP schedule a second interview with the woman, this time with an independent speech pathologist. But the interview is cancelled because the woman is “unwilling to communicate,” police say.

April 24, 2015 — Mother files court application for guardianship of her adult daughter.

April 28, 2015 — Prince Edward Island health minister signs emergency intervention order to assume responsibility for the woman.

June 10, 2015 — Clinical psychologist concludes the woman is “incapable of generating the communications that are being attributed to her,” and that all of the answers “are being generated by the facilitator.”

June 26, 2015 — Crown attorney files a stay of proceedings in the father’s case.

July 30, 2015 — Parents appointed guardians and are reunited with their daughter two days later.

March 9, 2016 — P.E.I. Supreme Court awards the parents more than $61,000 in legal costs, saying the health minister acted deplorably toward the family.

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