Defence suggests blackmailing Sault jail guard was witness’s plan from the start

The defence for a corrections officer on trial in Sault Ste. Marie challenged a Crown witness Thursday, accusing her of fabricating incidents, of planning to blackmail his client from the beginning – and now trying to benefit from what happened. (File)

Editor’s note: Some of the details in this story discuss sexual assault and will be upsetting to many readers. Reader discretion is advised.

The defence for a corrections officer on trial in Sault Ste. Marie challenged a Crown witness Thursday, accusing her of fabricating incidents, of planning to blackmail his client from the beginning – and now trying to benefit from what happened.

Derek Morgan, 41, is charged with sexual assault, forcible confinement and breach of trust related to incidents beginning in the spring of 2025.

Morgan was working as a staffer at the Algoma Treatment and Remand Centre when he was first charged in October 2025. Additional charges were laid in February of this year.

A publication ban is in effect to protect the identities of the women Morgan is charged with assaulting.

Testifying for the third straight day Oct. 15, a female witness insisted she only decided to blackmail Morgan after he failed to follow through with a promise to bring her a “package” that contained cocaine.

Kept asking her for sexual favours

The woman testified earlier this week that she was a cocaine addict and alcoholic when she arrived at the jail in March 2025. She said that Morgan had, on multiple occasions, made it clear that he was looking for oral sex from her.

She testified that Morgan told her he would bring her “what she wanted” if she complied. The woman said she told him that she would agree to perform “sexual favours” on him if he brought her the package first.

She said she told him where to pick it up and that it would be waiting for him inside a mailbox.

However, she said Morgan insisted on having sexual relations first, which she said took place the evening of May 16, 2025, and the morning of May 17. It involved oral sex, while Morgan digitally penetrated her.

When he failed to bring her package, however, she said she decided to blackmail him. She agreed to sexual intercourse with him, which she said took place June 13, 2025.

She collected ejaculate on her T-shirt and on a rag and kept it for evidence. Then she threatened in a note to expose him if he didn’t bring her the drugs.

But in his cross-examination, defence lawyer Michael Moon insisted there was only one sexual encounter – June 13 – and that it was oral sex, not intercourse.

Defence says she suggested plan

Moon suggested to the woman that it was she who first brought up the sexual-favours-for-the-package deal to Morgan, and that her plan all along was to get semen evidence to blackmail him into bringing cocaine into the jail.

“You saw an opportunity and you took it,” the lawyer said.

“I was given an opportunity and I took it,” the woman replied.

“He brought it up.”

Morgan knew she was a drug addict, she said, and offered to bring her what she wanted in exchange for oral sex. It was only after he failed to live up to the deal that she decided to blackmail him.

Blackmail was always one of her goals, Moon argued, adding that initiating the June 13 sexual encounter to get evidence was always part of her plan.

But the woman said she decided to blackmail Morgan only when he failed to live up to his end of the agreement.

“I suggested (sex) after he tried to get a b--job out of me,” she said.

She said no one would believe her if she didn’t have the evidence on her shirt and on the rag.

Wrote him several blackmail notes

The woman said she gave a note addressed to Morgan to another inmate who had an upcoming court appearance, since she knew the inmate would soon see him.

Morgan’s main job at the jail was to escort prisoners to and from court appearances via video or to meetings with their lawyers.

“She had court that day and I thought she would see Derek,” the woman said.

She later passed him a blackmail note slipped under the door when he came to her cell July 8, 2025. The letter said Morgan had two days to bring her the package or she would tell on him.

“That was the last letter I gave him,” she said.

She testified that she wrote him three other blackmail notes, which she gave to other inmates to deliver.

“A lot of people knew what was going on, what my intentions were,” she said.

“Three people on the range is a lot of people.”

Moon suggested she consented to the sex, and that she was now trying to leverage what happened to get her drug trafficking charges stayed -- and to sue the province for money.

“That wasn’t a main priority -- it was an afterthought,” she replied.

“On June 13 … using this to get out of jail was not on my mind … At that point it was me getting drugs in jail.”

If that was her plan, the woman said she would have used what happened to try and get bail and she wouldn’t still be in jail.

“My main goal is to get justice for me for what happened,” she said. “I just want justice.”

Moon pointed out that when she was first interviewed by investigators, she didn’t mention that the package she wanted Morgan to bring her included cocaine.

Didn’t mention the cocaine

She didn’t lie, the woman said; she just didn’t mention it.

Not mentioning the cocaine, Moon responded, was a lie of omission.

“I couldn’t bring myself to admit that,” the woman said.

“There should never have been a contract. I was an inmate and he was a guard.”

The Crown then called another witness, a woman who was incarcerated in the same cell block at the same time as the first witness.

The woman testified she had just been transferred to the Algoma centre from another institution.

Under questioning by assistant Crown Adrianna Mucciarelli, the woman said she was in the Algoma jail from May 2025 until January 2026.

She has a criminal record, she said, with her first conviction in 2016 and her most recent in 2024. She had been transferred to the Sault to finish serving her most recent sentence.

She had a roommate in June 2025 when she first encountered Morgan. While the jail cells only have one bed, a mattress is placed on the floor for a second person to sleep on when they have to double up.

She met Morgan “on the day of the incident,” she said, June or July 14, she was not sure which.

The jail cells are locked at 9 p.m. each night, but she said that inmates can press a buzzer to be let out to go to the washroom. She said lights go off on the ‘range’ (the hallway outside the cells) from 9 p.m. until 8 a.m.

Asked them for oral sex

She had been released to go to the bathroom and was on her way back to her cell when she saw Morgan on the range.

She said he stuck his head in their cell and asked her and her roommate whether they would give him oral sex.

He made other “inappropriate” comments, the woman said. She was reading a book near the desk in the cell, while her roommate was lying on the mattress on the floor.

They knew he was coming because the doors make a loud ‘click’ noise when they are unlocked and they could hear him approach,

“I said I wasn’t interested,” the woman said. “I had to be very firm about it.”

“My celly (cellmate) was pretending to sleep,” she added.

While she was very uncomfortable, she said she tried to laugh it off. Morgan left after a few minutes, she said, and she heard him walk down the hall, and heard another click of a door being unlocked in another cell.

She said then she saw the first woman who testified walk down the hall to the bathroom.

When the second witness later had to go to the bathroom, she passed by the ‘hatch’ – a silver metal opening to the office door. She said Morgan opened the hatch, called her name and asked her again about getting oral sex.

She again said she wasn’t interested. It was traumatic for her, the woman said. She was sexually assaulted when she was a child and reacts by shutting down when something like that happens.

“I’ve literally tried to delete him out of my head,” she said in her later testimony.

The three-week trial resumed Friday morning.

There is help for victims of sexual assault in Algoma from Victim Services Algoma. Anyone in immediate danger should call 911.

If you or someone you know is struggling with sexual assault or trauma, the following resources are available to support people in crisis:

The Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres’ website has a comprehensive list of sexual assault centres in Canada that offer information, advocacy and counselling.

The Ending Violence Association of Canada‘s website has links to helplines, support services and locations across Canada that offer sexual assault kits.

Indian Residential School Survivors Society crisis lines: [phone] or [phone] (24/7)

Toronto Rape Crisis Centre crisis line: [phone] (24/7)

Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline: [phone] (24/7)

Trans Lifeline: [phone]

Suicide Crisis Helpline: call or text 988 (24/7)

Sexual Misconduct Support and Resource Centre for current and former Canadian Armed Forces members: [phone]

Read about your rights as a victim on the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime website