Three men found guilty of sexual assault
In the grips of a crystal meth addiction, a 26-year-old woman left Calgary for Regina to continue her work as an escort while looking for romance with a man she met in Alberta.
That man, known to her by the nickname Romeo, picked her up at the airport and, over the course of two days, took part in subjecting her to an ordeal that included confinement and physical and sexual assaults.
The woman was eventually able to contact a police officer she knew in Calgary, who brought the Regina Police Service on board to rescue the woman and arrest the men.
At that time, Jonathan David Campbell-Ball, 26, from Edmonton, Abdirahman Kahin, 24, from Regina, and Jama Jibril Roble, 26, from Ottawa were charged with a variety of offences, including sexual assault and human trafficking.
The trio stood trial at Regina Court of Queen’s Bench and, on Wednesday, Justice Fred Kovach returned with his decision. As the three men sat huddled shoulderto-shoulder in the expansive prisoners’ box, Kovach acquitted them of human trafficking and procuring a person to offer or provide sexual services.
But he found them guilty of other offences: Campbell-Ball of sexual assault with a weapon, confinement and common assault; Kahin of sexual assault with a weapon, confinement and sexual assault; and Roble of confinement, sexual assault and common assault.
The men are to be sentenced on a later date.
Kovach recounted details of evidence heard at trial, including from the complainant who described what happened to her on Nov. 27 and 28, 2015.
The woman identified the three men by nicknames: Campbell-Ball as Romeo, Kahin as Adam and Roble as Jordan.
Kovach said he found the woman’s testimony credible, noting she didn’t try to gloss over details of her then-job as an escort. Rather, the woman was candid about consensual sexual encounters she had while in Regina, lending further credence to her claims of assault.
Recapping disturbing and graphic evidence, Kovach found the men had forced the complainant to perform various sexual acts during her time with them.
Among those incidents was one in which Campbell-Ball and Kahin penetrated her with a whisky bottle, ignoring her refusals, obvious distress and attempts to move away.
The woman was struck a number of times, both when trying to refuse to perform a sexual act and in the course of performing one. In one instance, she was hit when she initially said no to an act with Roble; when, as a result of the physical assault, she complied, the other men looked on and laughed, she told the court.
Court heard a second woman was present during much of the complainant’s confinement, with that woman alternately comforting her, being told to perform sexual acts with her, or arranging calls with customers.
While the complainant testified “Jordan” told her, “You’re working for me now,” Kovach determined that wasn’t enough to find him or the other two men guilty of the trafficking or procuring charges, in part because there was no evidence they collected money earned by the two women.