Ex-bus driver a skilled seducer, or victim of stalker?
Calgary court hears two very different versions of events in sexual assault trial
She describes him as a skilled seducer, a grown man who over time groomed her to be his May to her December. He describes her as a stalker who threatened to ruin his life if he didn’t acquiesce to her sexual demands.
On the stand Thursday in a Calgary courtroom, Paul Desmarais related his version of the events that have brought him back to the city where he worked for decades as a Calgary Transit driver, to face charges of sexual assault, sexual interference with a child under 16 and sexual interference by a person in authority.
Earlier in the week, the now 24-year-old complainant was a strong witness, at times defiantly jousting with defence lawyer Joan Blumer, who argued that she was making up her story of an innocent teenage girl being “groomed” by a father and grandfather in his early 50s. The alleged victim’s name is protected by a publication ban, as are any details that may identify her, including the bus route that Desmarais drove.
Both complainant and accused have incredible experiences to relate, with each painting nightmarish scenarios for the person telling them. They are, however, as disparate as two stories could possibly be.
“Don’t tell that crazy girl what my route is,” Desmarais tells the court when asked how he first reacted to their interactions in 2007.
According to the accused, the then 14-year-old embarked on what would be years of what can only be called stalking, showing up at his stops, making sexually suggestive comments that at first just slightly unnerved him.
“We should run away together,” he says she once suggested. “You read too many romance novels,” he recalls telling the teen. Yet his rebuffs, he says, only made matters worse.
Soon, the girl was relating sexual fantasies, stories she shared when there was no one else on the bus to overhear. At one point, she confessed that she had located his house and had considered showing up at his door to surprise him; later, he says, she threatened to make a claim of assault if he didn’t have sex with her.
“I lost it,” Desmarais tells Blumer. After a long absence, the teen showed up and informed him that she was now “legal,” and they could have sex. “I said, ‘Sorry, I’m a married man,’” says the accused, who later reiterates that he never had a sexual relationship with his alleged victim, nor even considered it.
At one point, the harassment Desmarais says he endured causes him to break down on the stand, as he describes crashing his bus into a motorcyclist, a result of being distracted by thoughts of the ongoing interactions. As he does, his family members in the courtroom gallery also break into tears.
The young complainant, sitting with a companion on the other side of the courtroom gallery, remains stoic throughout, shaking her head only occasionally during the accused’s testimony that refutes everything she said earlier.
Watching this he said/she said sexual assault case a decade after the alleged crime, the Crown’s cross-examination of the accused is something to anticipate.
During his afternoon crossexamination by Crown prosecutor Pam McCluskey, Desmarais acknowledges that his employer Calgary Transit gave him a nowin option.
“I didn’t like the sounds of the way they were phrasing ‘resign,’ so I thought I’d just retire,” he says. McCluskey goes on to question the accused about a day when one of his grandchildren was born; Calgary Transit’s policy on cellphone use for drivers; and details about some of the conversations he had with the complainant.
When asked why he didn’t report the incidents with the girl to co-workers or his union, he says, “I always handle things my own way.”
While Desmarais appears ruffled at times, it’s not clear, at least on this day, what the impact of those queries are.
When the Crown and defence later present closing arguments, perhaps some clarity will arise from this case of two very different, but both devastating, versions of encounters between a middleaged man and a teenage girl.
I didn’t like the sounds of the way they were phrasing ‘resign,’ so I thought I’d just retire.