One of two mixed martial arts fighters from British Columbia who are accused of sexually assaulting a woman at a Dartmouth hotel two-and-a-half years ago testified Wednesday in his own defence.
James Christopher Hanson (formerly of Prince George now residing in Surrey) offered a Dartmouth provincial court judge a different version of the events of Sept. 27, 2009, than the one given by the complainant, a 34-year-old Halifax woman, at the start of the trial last fall.
Hanson said he was lying on his bed looking at pictures on his digital camera while his roommate, Garry Christopher Peak, and the woman "were kissing and stuff."
Peak was kissing the woman's stomach, Hanson said, when she suddenly swore at him and kicked him away.
"It didn't make sense," Hanson said. "She was all over him two seconds earlier."
Hanson said he asked the woman why she was being a "bitch" and that she then kneeled over him, cocked her arms and slapped him in the face.
The woman yelled at him and looked like she was going to hit him again, Hanson said, so he pushed her backwards off the bed and onto the floor and told her to get out of the room.
He said he started throwing the woman's stuff by the door and she began to cry, apologized for her behaviour and said she had nowhere to go.
Peak then told the woman she could stay in the room "for a bit," Hanson said.
"I wasn't happy at all," the Surrey, B.C., man said.
He said he microwaved some popcorn, crawled under the covers and turned his back to Peak and the woman while he watched TV.
Before long, there was a loud knock on the door. It was Halifax Regional Police, who wanted to talk to the woman about a beating she had inflicted on her best friend in the same hotel room a few minutes earlier.
The friend had gone to the front desk for help, her face battered and bloody.
The other woman rushed into the hallway past the police. After she complained about not being able to breathe, she was taken to Dartmouth General Hospital, where she learned she had a collapsed lung.
It was at the hospital that police first heard the woman claim that she'd been sexually assaulted.
Peak, 35, and Hanson, 30, were both charged with forcible confinement and aggravated sexual assault. The trial got underway last October and was supposed to resume in December but was delayed after Peak was arrested on unrelated matters in Prince George, B.C., where he lives.
The woman testified last fall that Hanson pinned her arms above her head and kissed her neck while Peak kissed her belly, pulled her jeans and panties down to her knees and fondled her.
The woman said she yelled for the men to stop but they laughed at her.
She said the attack only stopped after she kicked Peak in the chin and worked a hand free to punch Hanson in the face. Hanson then threw her on the floor like she was a rag doll, she said.
But Hanson insisted Wednesday that he never held the woman's arms, didn't see Peak put his hands down her pants and did not throw her on the floor.
He said he pushed her away from him after she struck him because he was concerned about his safety.
Peak exercised his right not to take the stand at trial, but a video of his statement to police was shown in court last fall.
"When she said 'Stop,' I stopped," Peak told a detective who interviewed him about the incident.
"I was never that forceful, never at all."
During closing submissions Wednesday, Crown attorney Michelle James said she was no longer seeking a conviction for forcible confinement but that there was enough evidence to find the men guilty of aggravated sexual assault.
Defence lawyers Mark Knox and Peter Planetta, however, argued that inconsistencies in the woman's testimony made it unreliable.
"In a case such as this, the credibility of the complainant is paramount," said Planetta, who represents Peak. "There are countless reasons to doubt (her) evidence."
Judge Alanna Murphy reserved her decision until May 4. She said Peak and Hanson don't have to be in court that day, provided their lawyers are present.
