The lawyer defending a man accused of sexual assault and sexual interference of a person under age 16 said he would tell a BC Supreme Court judge on Tuesday, June 3 whether his client will testify.
“I need to meet my client and review it all with him,” Keith Jones told Justice Palbinder Kaur Shergill after Crown prosecutors Sarah Grogan and Blake Bouchard finished calling witnesses on June 2.
The scheduled 10-day trial, which began May 26 in Prince George, is under a publication ban to protect the identities of the accused, alleged victims and witnesses, all of whom are primarily from a community south of Prince George.
The accused pleaded not guilty to two charges of sexual assault and two charges of sexual interference of a person under age 16. The Crown accuses him of committing the offences between April 2019 and March 2022.
A woman testified that the accused suffered a brain injury as a teenager. While working in the bush, a tree fell on his head. He was flown to hospital in Vancouver for emergency medical treatment.
“He did flatline twice,” she testified, adding “that messed him up a bit.”
On cross-examination, the woman said that the lock on the bathroom door was changed before March 2022, after females who were showering complained that the accused was entering the bathroom.
Another witness testified about an incident in which the accused grabbed a girl’s breast, prompting a call to the RCMP. The witness testified about confronting the accused about the incident, but did not go into detail.
She said she asked him if he touched the victims. “He said he couldn't remember, that his brain was kind of all messed up.”
In May 30 testimony, one of the alleged victims was asked about a video recorded statement given to police. She said she had gone riding on a four-wheeled all-terrain vehicle with the accused five times and sometimes he let her drive.
She said she had been touched on the bra by the accused. Bouchard asked if the accused touched her elsewhere.
“I don’t know, I don’t remember,” she said.
He did visit the bathroom while she was in the shower, “pretty much multiple times.”
“He used to always peek in and made me uncomfortable,” she said, adding that the accused told her to spread her body, but “I always tell him to get the heck out.”
