City couple denies engaging in sex acts with intoxicated teen

Pair tell court they barely noticed girl, never were alone with her in basement

A Saskatoon couple accused of sexually assaulting an intoxicated 16-year-old girl say they did not engage in any sex acts with the teen and were never alone with her in the basement where the alleged assault took place.

They said they returned to the girl’s Pacific Heights area home in the early morning hours of June 20, 2015, to retrieve a 26-ounce bottle of vodka they had left behind. The couple said they barely noticed the girl as they argued over whether to continue partying at a different house.

The man and woman, both in their 40s, testified Wednesday and Thursday at their sexual assault trial in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench.

In her opening statement to the jury on Thursday, the man’s lawyer, Jane Basinski, reminded jurors that the accused is never required to take the stand. She said her client has chosen to tell his side of the story — and open himself up to scrutiny from the Crown.

The man is accused of raping the complainant, now 18 years old, while his girlfriend pressed her breasts into the girl’s face and held her down. These details were consistent throughout the girl’s police interviews and her testimonies at the preliminary hearing and trial.

During their separate testimonies, the couple said that never happened.

They said they met the girl on June 19, 2015, when they went to drink in her uncle’s basement after a night at the bar. They testified they saw the teen drinking, but did not know how old she was.

The couple said they realized the girl had come with them when they left the home at the same time as another woman around 4:30 a.m. They testified they were dropped off at their van in a parking lot but decided to walk back to the girl’s house because the woman had a previous conviction for impaired driving and the man doesn’t drive.

This differs from the complainant’s version of events. She said she blacked out and woke up in a van, with the woman driving and the man fondling her breast.

The man and woman said they returned to the house and briefly went downstairs to look for the vodka, which wasn’t there. They said they went upstairs and proceeded to argue while the girl called them a cab.

The woman said her partner left in the cab, taking her cellphone and bank card with him. She said she used the house phone to call her cellphone multiple times, until her partner came back to drop off her phone.

Phone records from that morning show several calls made back and forth between the woman and the man. Crown prosecutor Rochelle Wempe suggested it was because they were fighting about what they had done to the girl.

“All those calls were because you were panicking,” she said to the woman, who replied it was because her partner still had her bank card and she was worried he would be spending her money.

The defence closed its case on Thursday. The jury is expected to begin deliberating after hearing closing arguments.