Former Vancouver Island Group Home Employee Convicted of Sexually Assaulting Youth

British Columbia man Matthew Arlen Porcher was convicted in November 2024 of sexually assaulting a teenage resident of a youth care home in the Greater Victoria area. Porcher, who was 21 at the time of the assault in April 2022, committed the sexual assault after building an inappropriately close relationship with the teenage victim, then aged 14.

Our firm represents many victims of sexual, physical, and psychological abuse in institutional settings, including group homes. If you or someone you know had any inappropriate contact or interaction with a current or former group home employee, including Matthew Arlen Porcher, we encourage you to speak with our institutional abuse lawyers at a free initial consultation. You may have grounds for a civil legal claim.

Assailant’s Job Gave Access to Troubled Youth

Porcher met the boy when the boy lived at two youth care homes, IDM House and Metchosin House, both located in the western suburbs of Greater Victoria. They first met in fall 2021, after Porcher was hired as a resident support worker by the operator of the homes, IDM Youth Services Inc.

IDM Youth Services runs the homes on behalf of the British Columbia Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD). Their residents are youths who have been placed in government-provided care, for example because their parents are unable to safely raise them and have needs beyond what ordinary foster homes can address.

The accused’s duties as a resident support worker involved extensive direct interaction with the youth in care. The duties included making meals, waking them and encouraging them to go to school, taking them to appointments, and putting them to bed.

Porcher got to know the victim after another staff member at Metchosin House got into an “altercation with a staff member, who threw the complainant against a door,” B.C. Supreme Court Justice Gareth Morley stated in his Nov. 21, 2024 trial decision. Because the victim’s back was injured, Porcher drove him to Victoria General Hospital’s emergency room and stayed with him until he saw a doctor. The doctor recommended ice and rest for his injury. Eventually, Porcher returned him to Metchosin House.

Perpetrator Gets Closer to Victim

Porcher had been filling in for another worker at Metchosin House the night of the altercation. Within a month, he saw an opening there and successfully applied for it. He then started working there two or three days a week.

He developed a bond with the victim (possibly helped by their relatively close ages) during his time at Metchosin House. They played video games together and Porcher told the youth about his goal of becoming a police officer.

IDM’s group home employees were trained in and agreed to follow numerous rules and policies, including ones intended to lessen the risk of youths in care being sexually exploited. For example, physical contact between workers and residents was not allowed “except to the extent appropriate for emotional support.” Porcher broke at least several of these rules.

IDM Youth Services warned Porcher twice for staying later than he was supposed to at the home. Only staff assigned to the night shift were supposed to be present when the residents were asleep.

Other actions of Porcher’s that were against IDM’s rules included giving the victim back massages (supposedly to help the back injury), regularly communicating with the victim through Porcher’s personal cellphone and social media accounts, and wrestling or “roughhousing” with the victim and his half-brother (also a care home resident) while the victim was shirtless at least twice.

The victim was moved to IDM House to separate him from his half-brother in April 2022, about 10 days before the sexual assault occurred. Porcher then met with him twice in his car in a nearby park.

Porcher’s co-workers expressed concern to IDM Youth Services management that his relationship with the victim was unprofessional and lacked boundaries. Management took the complaints seriously.

“This concern would have been magnified had IDM been aware that the accused was giving the complainant back massages in his room, exchanging text and Snapchat messages with him regularly, and meeting with him after curfew in his car in parks,” commented Justice Morley.

Based on her existing knowledge of Porcher’s relationship with the victim, Porcher’s supervisor told him that “he needed to have a break” from working with the victim for 3 to 6 months. Porcher was permitted to meet with the victim for 2 hours at IDM House on April 24, 2022 (during his scheduled shift at Metchosin House) to explain the separation. IDM management allowed this meeting to occur for the sake of the victim’s emotional well-being.

Sexual Assault Occurs at Final Face-to-Face Meeting

That night, and into the early hours of April 25, 2022, Porcher ended up staying past the end of his scheduled shift despite his supervisor’s instructions. The victim’s half-brother, who showed up at IDM House without permission, got into an argument with the victim that resulted in the half-brother physically assaulting him and a call to police.

Porcher put the victim to bed at about 2 a.m. at IDM House, where he had stayed even after the half-brother returned to Metchosin House, where Porcher was supposed to be working, at around 1 a.m. While the victim slept or appeared to be sleeping, Porcher fondled his buttocks and genital area, according to the victim’s testimony. After about 20 minutes, the victim appeared to wake up. Porcher tried to get him to go back to sleep but the victim stayed up. Porcher then left.

Another IDM House employee found the victim the following morning sleeping on the living room couch. He told her then that this was because a staff member had touched him inappropriately in the last 12 days, but he was not more specific than that. The other employee wrote an incident report based on this partial disclosure, following IDM policy.

In the days since, Porcher discovered the incident report and repeatedly tried to contact the victim by social media and from his cellphone. He asked the victim to meet him in his car at a park. The victim agreed but instead called the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), who told Porcher to go home and started the investigation leading to Porcher’s arrest.

Justice Morley found Porcher guilty of one count of sexual assault and one count of touching for a sexual purpose. In his decision, the judge noted that Porcher’s explanations of his actions like the back massages and messages to the victim after the sexual assault were unbelievable and inconsistent. For example, Porcher claimed that he wanted to meet with the victim after seeing the incident report so he could find out who committed the sexual assault. However, Porcher’s messages to the victim made it clear he assumed the incident report was about him. The judge described Porcher as a “practised liar and manipulator” and reasoned that his testimony denying the assault should receive no weight at all.

How Can an Institutional Abuse Lawyer Help?

It appears from the decision that IDM, Porcher’s employer, had strong mechanisms in place to lower the risk of its resident youths being sexually exploited.

However, not all organizations have formed effective rules and policies to screen potential abusers and handle complaints of inappropriate behaviour. Even if they have, those rules and policies were not always followed, as Porcher’s case shows.

In British Columbia, the provincial government, including MCFD, cannot be held vicariously liable for abuse by foster parents, who are considered independent contractors. However, MCFD or group home operators may have been negligent in upholding their duty of care to foster children, in which case a civil legal claim is possible.

The civil court system runs separately from the criminal court system. While criminal justice is concerned with offenders’ harm to the public at large, civil justice aims to compensate plaintiffs for the harm caused to them by defendants.

If retained as your lawyers, we can deal with any communications with the defendant’s legal team and determine what damages to pursue. We are also happy to provide referrals to support services available to abuse survivors such as counselling should you wish.

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We can provide specific legal advice about filing a claim, whether negligence played a role in your abuse, and more at a free initial consultation.

Please call us toll-free at 1-844-373-8202 any time or come to our downtown Vancouver office to set up an appointment with our lawyers.

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