Ex-uOttawa players must wait for verdict
Sexual assault trial decision in June
The judge’s decision on whether two former University of Ottawa players are guilty of sexual assault will not be made until June.
Closing submissions were held in the trial of Guillaume Donovan and David Foucher on Friday at the Thunder Bay courthouse.
Donovan and Foucher are charged with sexual assault in connection with an alleged incident on Feb. 2, 2014 at an Arthur Street hotel when the Gee- Gees hockey team was in Thunder Bay for a series of games against the Lakehead University Thunderwolves.
The alleged victim, who can’t be identified due to a publication ban, testified last week that she engaged in consensual intercourse with another Gee- Gees player, Taylor Collins, after the two left a northside bar together. The woman said that afterward, all of a sudden Collins was gone and two other men then allegedly sexually assaulted her.
Collins and the alleged victim met through an online dating application.
Collins had testified early last week that once he noticed Donovan, who was an assistant captain of the team at the time, standing beside the bed, he got up and left the room. He said he saw the alleged victim performing oral sex on Donovan as he walked out of the room.
On Thursday, Donovan testified he came into the room and wanted to join in, and he said Collins asked the alleged victim if she was OK with two.
During his closing submission, Donovan’s lawyer, Christian Deslauriers, said his client has paid a high price for engaging in the threesome and that his name will be tarnished forever because of the charge against him.
Des laurie rs said Donovan showed a lack of respect toward women and his morality has been questioned, but his actions were not illegal.
The lawyer also said statements the alleged victim made saying she “just went along with it” and that she “gave” one man oral sex showed she gave consent.
Speaking with the media after court adjourned for the day, Deslauriers said reasonable doubt is the biggest reason his client should be acquitted.
“I have no doubt there was reasonable doubt from the start to the end,” he said, adding the Crown’s case showed issues with the alleged victim’s credibility.
“When you tell the truth, the truth is the truth,” said Deslauriers. “It’s hard to get away from it. When someone is working on a story and tries to arrange the version of events, then the story changes.”
Both Deslauriers and Celina St. Francois, Foucher’s lawyer, argued against the alleged victim’s credibility, pointing out she made different statements to police and that her story changed several times.
St. Francois said Foucher, the captain of the Gee- Gees during the 2013-2014 season, never touched the alleged victim or even met or spoke to her.
During his testimony on Thursday, Foucher said he and a couple of other players had got naked except for their boots upon returning to the hotel after the bar that night, and were joking around when he saw Donovan with the alleged victim.
Foucher and two other players snuck into the room to play a joke on Donovan, he said, and they hid in the room. He said the alleged victim was never supposed to see them in the room.
Crown attorney Marc Huneault noted that Donovan said in his testimony that the alleged victim never refused to have intercourse with him or attempted to push him off.
Huneault said you can’t expect an individual to have a certain way to consent and that the alleged victim had two choices in the situation — she could either let it happen or try to fight back and risk elevating the situation.
With submissions now complete, Justice Chantal Brochu will deliver her decision on June 25.