A BC Supreme Court judge said in Prince George that she would deliver her verdict in a sexual assault case on Friday, June 6.
Justice Justice Palbinder Kaur Shergill heard closing arguments on Wednesday, June 4 after a trial that began May 26 when a man 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.
The trial was held 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.
Defence lawyer Keith Jones told Shergill that there were “sufficient holes and difficulties with” the Crown case. He also called his client, who testified in his own defence, honest and believable in describing his history and background.
“He did the only thing he could do, and that's denied that any of these things had happened,” Jones said.
“Nobody actually saw anything. There were never any medical reports or anything like that that would tend to corroborate. So it's essentially she said, he said.”
Jones acknowledged his client suffered a brain injury as a 15-year-old and he continues to recover, “but the sorts of memory issues he has are the sorts of incidental things that, like we all forget going to the grocery store, forgetting to buy margarine or forgetting where you put your pen.”
Crown prosecutor Blake Bouchard conceded the case was complicated by the brain injury.
“In addition to the usual credibility considerations, in the case of a bare denial, the Crown submits that there are major reliability problems here that aren't usually present in this type of case,” Bouchard said.
“A lot of those denials amounted to [the accused] saying he couldn't see himself doing that. I wouldn't do something like that. It was suggested to him that his memory in this time frame was incomplete.”
Bouchard said the accused showed a pattern of allegedly taking opportunities to commit offences while engaged in activities with the complainants independently, such as during an outdoor game of Mantracker, which is similar to hide and seek.
“Once he's in that isolated place, once they're doing something else, he takes that opportunity to touch their vagina, and he does so repeatedly,” Bouchard said.
Bouchard acknowledged it was not sexual assault when the accused peeked at the complainants while they showered, but it does counter the defence of accident.
“It's relevant to the intentionality of what's taking place here. It's relevant to demonstrating sexual interest in [the complainant] on the part of [the accused], and it makes any suggestions he accidentally touched her, implausible,” Bouchard said.
