The owner of a Langford construction company has been ordered by a judge to pay nearly $1 million in damages for repeatedly sexually assaulting one of his female employees.
In 2016, Kyle Christopher Mostowy was found guilty in B.C. Supreme Court of sex offences committed against a total of five women who worked for him as office assistants at All Canadian Construction Ltd., a company he fully owned and directed. He was sentenced to three years in jail.
One of the victims, who cannot be identified due to a publication ban, sued him for damages arising out of the sexual assaults committed against her in the late autumn of 2010.
The victim, a 44-year-old mother of two, had been unemployed for about a year with her employment insurance benefits about to run out when she got the job at All Canadian through a subsidized employment program.
Court heard that the sexual assaults committed by Mostowy began almost immediately after the victim was hired.
In her ruling on the civil lawsuit, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Veronica Jackson noted that the victim was left in a “desperate” situation as she did not think she would be able to get welfare if she quit or be entitled to employment insurance if she quit or was fired.
“She was ashamed, in part because she did not quit, and instead kept returning to work despite knowing the sexual assault would be likely to continue,” said the judge.
“While the sexual assaults were ongoing, the plaintiff’s migraine headaches were constant; the pain became excruciating and could not be controlled with her usual medication.”
After using sexualized conversations, Mostowy touched private parts of her body despite her protests.
Before the sexual assaults, the victim had been able to provide for herself and her children but after the crimes, her life changed completely, said the judge.
“Physically her entire body was in pain. She began having suicidal thoughts. She stopped caring about her appearance. She stopped cooking. She stopped cleaning the house or caring for the property.”
As a result of her withdrawal from her sons, including spending increasing amounts of time alone in her room, the sons decided to move in with their father.
“She had loved being a mother to her sons and laments the loss of her close relationship with them, and feels a tremendous amount of guilt about it,” said the judge.
The judge concluded that the victim had largely been unable to work as a result of suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and a major depressive disorder and there was a real possibility that she would be permanently unable to work due to her mental injuries.
The victim was awarded $157,500 for pain and suffering, $284,400 for past loss of earning capacity and $540,000 for future loss of earning capacity, for a total of $981,900. Mostowy was named as a defendant along with his company.
