Second woman says Munro's husband targeted her as a child

Gerald Fremlin allegedly showed 9-year-old his genitals six years before incident with step-daughter

- DEBORAH DUNDAS, BETSY POWELL

Jane Morrey said she was "lucky that my mom never questioned that it happened and believed me instantly." But her mother's actions years later would hurt her.

Gerald Fremlin was a frequent guest at Jane Morrey’s Toronto home when she was a little girl. It wasn’t unusual for him to stay overnight after an evening spent drinking and talking philosophy with her parents. Sometimes they would travel to his home in Clinton or cabin near Ottawa. Morrey was fond of Fremlin, who showered her with attention and special gifts. She didn’t know how to react when he exposed himself and propositioned her when she was just nine years old.

She is processing the incident again 55 years later after learning that she wasn’t Fremlin’s only victim — he had also, six years later, sexually assaulted Andrea Munro (later known as Andrea Robin Skinner), Canadian writer Alice Munro’s youngest daughter, when she, too, was just nine. It was a crime to which he pleaded guilty in 2005.

“What transpired between us was a textbook case of sexual grooming,” says Morrey, who is now 64, speaking to the Star by phone.

With at least one other allegation besides Morrey’s known to the Munro family, they are left to wonder if there were others — and are chilled by the fact Alice herself feared Fremlin had done much worse, but still stood by him.

Skinner spent years looking for other victims. “I wanted my mom to see it wasn’t my fault,” she wrote in a message, adding she was grateful for Morrey stepping forward after reading her essay in the Star.

“It takes guts to dive into this stuff but for me her disclosure hammers home the point that predators are not a family matter.”