National Post (National Edition)
Man gets year in ‘sexsomnia’ sex assault
‘Victory, finally’ after eight years, victim says
O T TAWA • Bekah D’aoust says she spent years after her sexual assault drinking herself into oblivion, starving herself, binge-eating and barely coping.
“I doubted who I was, my worth, my purpose to live, my beauty, my intelligence. I doubted every good piece of me,” D’aoust, 31, said in a victim impact statement read in a Brockville, Ont., court, during the sentencing hearing of her abuser, Ryan Hartman.
Hartman was sentenced Wednesday to one year in jail by Judge Kimberly Moore, who said the “gravity of his offence cannot be overstated.”
“His moral blameworthiness is very high,” the judge said, noting that the offence took place while D’aoust was intoxicated and asleep beside her boyfriend in what she thought was a safe place.
Outside court, D’aoust said she was relieved to have the case concluded after eight long and difficult years.
“Victory, finally,” she told reporters. “I wanted to cry but I couldn’t because I’m not sad.”
Earlier in the day, the judge rejected Hartman’s Jordan application, which had sought to throw out the case because of unreasonable court delays.
Hartman assaulted D’aoust in February 2011. But the criminal case has played out over eight years because he successfully appealed his first conviction.
The case garnered headlines because of Hartman’s use of a “sexsomnia” defence during his second trial: He claimed he was asleep and acting unconsciously when he committed the assault.
Moore, however, rejected that defence. She found that Hartman was blackout drunk, not asleep, when he pulled down D’aoust’s pants and anally penetrated her as she slept on an air mattress with her boyfriend after a house party.
In her victim impact statement, D’aoust — a publication ban on her name has been lifted at her request — told court the incident has changed her utterly. “I am not the same woman I was in 2011 when the offence occurred,” she said.
After the assault, D’aoust said, she gave up her goal of a criminology degree. Instead, she drifted into alcohol, drugs and bounced between jobs as she tried to piece her life back together.
“If I had one wish in the world for you,” she told Hartman, “it would be to live a day in my shoes: to see the darkness I would have to look past every day.”
She told Hartman that he made “a selfish and thoughtless choice” in assaulting her on the night in question. “And until this day, you were certain there would be no consequences,” she said. “You have shown me no remorse and you have denied your guilt. Today you will face the consequences.”
Hartman, a 38-year-old truck driver, was offered the chance to speak to the courtroom, but he declined.
D’aoust said he has never apologized. “It still makes me angry and it frustrates me, but he’s just not sorry and that’s something I have to live with,” she said.
Hartman’s lawyer, Margaret Bojanowska, told court that her client continues to believe he acted in his sleep.
She asked the judge to sentence Hartman to a term of house arrest since he has no other criminal convictions that involve sexual assault or violence, and does not present a threat to the community. He has been in a stable relationship with his common-law wife for 11 years, she said, and is the sole breadwinner in the family.
Bojanowska called the assault an “isolated incident” that was completely out of character for Hartman, who suffers from Asperger Syndrome, attention deficit disorder, depression and anxiety.
Crown attorney Claudette Breault characterized the incident as a sinister attack on a defenceless person and asked the court to consider the full penalty available.
A summary conviction for sexual assault carries a maximum jail term of 18 months.
“She was violated in her sleep by a stranger at a party,” Breault said. “Because of Mr. Hartman, she has had very little stability in her life. Because of Mr. Hartman, she has lived in fear. It has taken many years for her to get to where she is now.”
D’aoust told Hartman she’s thankful that today she’s a stronger, wiser person, not just a victim. “Today, I am an advocate. You no longer have a hold on my life. Today I am free.”
Outside court, D’aoust told reporters that dozens of sex assault victims have approached her since she made her identity public. “I’m here pleading to you, ‘Don’t be deterred, you’re not alone.’ It’s a long fight, and it can be painful, it can be awful. But I will never regret calling 911.”