Man testifies sexual contact was accidental

HEAVY DRINKING

PAOLA LORIGGIO BARRIE, ONT. •Amanaccused of sexually assaulting an Ontario woman while she slept last year suggested his genitals may have accidentally come in contact with hers that night after he mistakenly climbed into the wrong bed.

Shawn Roy told a Barrie, Ont., court he couldn’t explain how his DNA got onto Kassidi Coyle but said it was possible his genitals came out of his boxers during the night, noting it had happened in the past “at least a couple of times.”

Roy testified Tuesday that he was drinking heavily with a group for close to 10 hours before he went upstairs to sleep at a friend’s house in the early hours of July 1, 2016, and he couldn’t recall getting into bed. The 39-year-old said he eventually became aware someone else was in bed and he panicked and fled to another room.

He said it was only the next morning that he discovered he was being accused of sexually assaulting Coyle, a 20-year-old woman who was also staying at the house that night.

During cross-examination, however, Crown lawyer Lynn Shirreffs pointed out that Roy denied to investigators that his genitals could have accidentally come out during the night, and said he had failed to come up with a compelling explanation for why his DNA was on Coyle’s “intimate parts.”

Shirreffs suggested Roy was not as drunk as he made himself out to be, and that he sought to take advantage of Coyle, who he believed to be passed out from drinking.

Court has heard Coyle was friends with the daughter of another resident of the home and had met Roy briefly earlier in the night. Coyle told friends and police she woke up to find someone trying to penetrate her and jumped out of bed, then saw Roy and spotted her underwear and shorts on the ground.

The young woman took her own life four months later but the statements she made shortly after the incident are being admitted as evidence at Roy’s trial.

In a ruling released last week, the judge found Coyle didn’t have time or motive to fabricate the allegations, and noted the results of a rape kit corroborate her perception of physical contact as well as “the nature of that contact.”

The identity of sexual assault complainants is typically protected by a publication ban but the court lifted the ban at the request of Coyle’s family. The family has pushed for greater support for those who experience sexual assault, noting Coyle killed herself before she could attend her first counselling session.

Family members walked out of the courtroom during Roy’s testimony Tuesday and Coyle’s mother later said she found it too difficult to hear.

On the stand, Roy described driving from Quebec, where he now lives, to Barrie with 12 cases of beer for what was supposed to be a fun-filled Canada Day weekend.