‘You are strong and you are brave’

Judge praises young student who came forward with sexual assault experience

A Nova Scotia judge praised a young university student for coming forward after a sexual assault she endured when she was 17, saying she showed courage and strength during a two-year legal ordeal that ended Tuesday with the sentencing of a male classmate.

“Despite how difficult it must have been for her to share her thoughts and feelings regarding the impact of the assault ... she somehow mustered the courage to read it into the record,” Justice Glen McDougall said before sentencing 21-year-old Chris Davidson of Calgary to 29 months in prison for sexual assault and unlawful confinement.

“I hope she can continue to somehow find the strength and courage to go on,” the judge told the victim.

“Often times, victims of sexual violence never get over the trauma of having been abused ... You have already shown that if anyone can persevere and move forward, you can. You are young, strong and you are brave.”

During Davidson’s trial in February, a Nova Scotia Supreme Court jury heard that the pair became fast friends as they both started their studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax in September 2015. Both were away from home and on their own for the first time - and both had little experience with alcohol. Davidson was 18 at the time. On the night in question, the couple planned to attend a fraternity party. Before they left, they both drank several shots of vodka. “Although Mr. Davidson didn’t have a lot of drinking experience, he matched (her) drink for drink,” McDougall said.

“Nor did she have a great deal of drinking experience, based on the evidence.” McDougall said the woman, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, drank about six shots. Davidson had more, though the number remains unclear.

When they returned to the woman’s dorm room, they undressed each other and prepared to engage in consensual sex, and the woman suggested he should wear a condom. But at one point, Davidson told the woman he had not had sex before, and was planning to share his first experience with his girlfriend.

“Upon hearing for the first time that Mr. Davidson had a girlfriend, (she) decided that she did not want to go any further down this path and told Mr. Davidson to stop,” the judge said, adding that she placed her arm on his chest to make him stop.

“Unfortunately, her efforts to end things were to no avail.” The woman placed a condom on Davidson’s penis when it became clear she could not restrain him or escape, the judge said. McDougall said the overconsumption of alcohol might help explain what happened, but he stressed that it couldn’t excuse Davidson’s actions, nor could it be considered a mitigating factor.

The Alberta man told police he had no memory of what happened that night, saying he blacked out. Davidson did not testify in his own defence.