Accused struggled as work vanished

Complainant tells court she never felt safe around man she said violently assaulted her

The trial is underway for a Princeton man accused of violently sexually assaulting and confining an ex-girlfriend in 2016.

The accused, who cannot be identified to protect the identity of the complainant, pleaded not guilty to sexual assault, simple assault and forcible confinement Tuesday in B.C. Supreme Court in Penticton.

The 26-year-old female complainant took the stand Tuesday morning.

She said her months-long relationship with the accused soured after logging truck work slowed down for him, and things became “rocky” and “strange” between the two.

“I didn’t really want to be in the relationship, but I didn’t feel like I could not be in the relationship,” she said.

She testified the night of the November 2016 assault began when the two planned to have the accused pick her up and come back to his place, where she would sort through some items of her former roommate’s that were stored at his place.

The two exchanged text messages, which were put to the complainant during cross-examination. They outlined arranging to pick up cocaine earlier in the evening and arguments between the two with the man accusing her of having another boyfriend.

The accused asked her to come over, to which she replied “I don’t feel safe around you.”

She testified she relented and went over.

When she attempted to leave, the complainant testified, she was blocked by the accused, and ran back and forth between the two exits to the residence until he eventually “bear hugged” her and she fell to the ground.

“I just cried. I couldn’t do anything. I just felt powerless.”

She said the accused choked her, smothered her with a pillow, and at one point put a sock in her mouth while she “tried to yell loud enough for the neighbours to hear.”

The complainant testified he shoved her head into the floor during the altercation, putting one of her teeth through her bottom lip. She testified he pulled her pants down and began having vaginal intercourse against her will for approximately five minutes before stopping.

“I was struggling, trying to get away, not having any success. He wasn’t listening to me at all and I froze,” she said. “I was trying to tell him to get off. To not do it. To go away and to let me go. He just kept going and going and yelling at me. I froze. Just stopped, stopped moving. Just kept crying.” Eventually, she said, he stopped. She said he told her ìthe reason I didn’t want to do it with him was because I was a whore. He just stopped and walked away.”

The accused later made her “lay down and go to bed with him,” she said, where she remained until her roommate arrived at the door the next day looking for her. “He just let me leave,” she said. The complainant was able to make it to work on time, where police attended after having been called there by her mother, she said, who found out about the alleged incident through the roommate. Police took photos of facial injuries and bruising on her neck, around one eye and lip. She attended Princeton hospital, then later Penticton hospital, where an examination was conducted lasting multiple hours, she said.

Crown counsel Nashina Devji plans to call two further witnesses, including the former roommate of the complainant and the nurse who conducted the examination after the alleged assault.

The trial is scheduled to continue through Thursday.