Judge finds paramedic not guilty of sexual assault

A paramedic charged with sexually assaulting two young women in his home while providing first aid instruction has been found not guilty on three sex offences.

Trevor Dale Young, 49, of Birch Avenue, New Waterford, was charged with two counts of sexually assault and a single count of sexual touching.

The offences were alleged to have occurred in August 2011.

As a result of several delays, the trial began in January 2015 and concluded in October 2016. Provincial court Judge David Ryan delivered his verdict in the case Tuesday.

The women, whose names are prohibited from publication, claimed that Young had touched their breasts and vaginal areas while demonstrating certain first aid procedures such as placing an arm in a sling and the Heimlich manoeuver.

In another demonstration involving the proper placing of a leg splint, one of the women testified Young placed the splint between her legs and pushed it into her vaginal area.

One of the women reported the incidents to Cape Breton Regional Police two days later. Police subsequently charged Young.

In a lengthy oral decision, Ryan said he was struck by the evidence of the two women when it came to notes they made after the incidents at Young home.

Both testified to never reviewing the other’s notes but as Ryan pointed out in his decision, there were some seven passages from the notes that were identical in wording.

“The wording is virtually identical. To be that identical is asking that credulity be stretched to the absurd,” said the judge.

“They were both, in my opinion, less than truthful,” said Ryan, when it came to their testimony about never seeing the other’s notes in which they described what had occurred.

As a result of the doubt cast by the notes, Ryan said he had to enter a not guilty verdict for the accused.

Both women testified during the trial that it was a coincidence their notes matched in certain areas and steadfastly denied having seen the other’s prior to being shown the notes in court.

There were also other inconsistencies in their testimony, said Ryan, referring to one woman’s claim that Young asked if she had any nipple piercings because the use of a defibrillator device would cause serious burns to that area.

The other woman made no mention of such a comment during the instruction at Young’s home.