Witnesses tell court babysitter sexually assaulted them

Warning: This story contains graphic content that may be upsetting to readers.

Two witnesses testified Thursday at the trial of their former babysitter, Michael Andress, who also worked as a Hamilton crossing guard, saying he sexually assaulted them multiple times while under his care.

Andress, 70, is charged with three counts of sexual interference, which involves touching someone under the age of 16 for a sexual purpose. There are three complainants. Andress was arrested in 2019.

The first witness, who cannot be named due to a standard publication ban, testified to the jury that she was around the age of 10 when the alleged assaults occurred. She is now 14 and testified virtually. The jury was also played a videotaped statement she gave to police at age 11.

In the police interview, the girl, holding two stuffed animals, said Andress used to take her into his basement while babysitting her. He would put blankets on the ground, measure her chest and hips with measuring tape, record the measurements in a notebook, and then sexually assault her, she said.

She couldn’t say how many times the alleged assaults happened.

“He said to me that he was going to get arrested for it if I told anybody,” she said in the tape. “But I actually didn’t tell anybody.”

She was at Andress’ home when he was arrested. “My face went uh-oh,” she said.

The second witness, now 20, testified virtually. She told court Andress and his wife babysat her in the summer of 2014 when she was 12.

On her first night at their home, she said Andress offered to make her “pretty.” She thought that meant he could help her exercise to look better. Instead, in the basement, he suggested they measure her bra size. She took off her shirt and bra and he then measured her chest then made notes in a notebook, she said. Then he groped her, she said. Another girl was with them in the basement at the time.

In another incident, he groped her under her shirt but over her bra while she was in the kitchen, pressing his erect penis into her back, she said.

In another incident, she tried to use the bathroom but he was inside. He opened the door in a towel and forced her to touch him, she said through tears.

Andress, pale with white hair, sat in court dressed in a black windbreaker and green T-shirt, sometimes resting his chin on his hands.

At one point, defence lawyer Peter Boushy asked his client to take off his jacket and stand up. Boushy noted Andress didn’t have visible freckles on his exposed arms. The witness had said in her statement to police that the person who assaulted her had freckles on his shoulders and arms. In court, she clarified she meant to say her abuser had freckles higher up on his arms and shoulders.

She testified that she didn’t tell her parents what had happened until 2019.

“I realized I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I wanted to stop having this buried in my brain and affecting me every day.”

The trial continues Friday.