Man found guilty of sexually assaulting intoxicated, underage girl near riverbank

Warning: Story contains descriptions of sexual assault

A Saskatoon King's Bench judge said she doesn't believe a man's testimony that he did not have sex with an intoxicated 15-year-old girl before leaving her unconscious near the Saskatoon riverbank, and that he only recorded his 17-yearold friend doing the same.

Snapchat videos played in court show the younger male having sex with the girl while she goes in and out of consciousness in the early morning hours of June 7, 2021.

In the videos, Mohammad Kouman encourages his friend to anally penetrate the girl, while laughing. His comments on the videos are “goading, taunting and teasing,” Justice Natasha Crooks said while giving her decision Tuesday.

On one recording, Kouman pulls his pants up while standing over the girl's naked body, asking “You want to more f***?”

The girl couldn't legally consent to sexual activity with Kouman because of their age gap, and did not have the capacity to consent because of her level of intoxication, Crooks ruled, finding Kouman guilty of sexual assault with another person present and making child pornography for recording the two underage teens.

Kouman, wearing glasses, cropped facial hair and a grey jail sweatshirt, appeared stunned by the guilty verdict.

Crooks said once she was convinced of Kouman's guilt, she had to decide whether he was the perpetrator of a sexual assault, or a party to his younger friend's sexual assault. She determined he was guilty of both.

“This was a true joint venture with both he and (the teen) committing a sexual assault,” Crooks said.

At his judge-alone trial in February, Kouman, 26, denied having sex with the girl, whom he had met for the first time that night, but admitted recording what he believed was consensual sex between her and his 17-year-old friend. Crooks said she did not accept his testimony that he was simply a chauffeur for two teens, pacing around the riverbank for hours while they drank alcohol and had sex.

Rather, he bought two minors alcohol — while he remained sober — and drove them to a secluded area where he encouraged his friend to have sex with an obviously intoxicated girl, Crooks said.

Kouman testified he had a girlfriend, but Crooks pointed out that the objective of the night was for the younger man to “find chicks for them.” Court also heard that he told his friend not to get girls who were “too young” because they would get in trouble.

This makes little sense outside the context of sex, Crooks noted.

Court heard the girl had been chatting with the younger man over social media. They arranged for him to pick her up so she could sneak out around midnight. Court heard the teen brought Kouman, who was driving, and that the girl was trying to text her friend to come out too.

The co-accused man, now 20, pleaded guilty in 2021 to sexual assault with another person present and received a 30-month youth sentence. His identity is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act because he was under 18 at the time. He testified that he recorded Kouman having sex with the girl after he did, but he doesn't know what happened to the video. He said at one point, the girl told Kouman, “No, not you.”

The man told court that she “kept passing out” while both he and Kouman were assaulting her. He said Kouman wore a condom.

A sex-assault kit confirmed at least two male DNA profiles were extracted from her swab samples. Experts said there wasn't enough genetic material to make any meaningful comparisons to known samples, including Kouman's.

Court heard a bystander found the girl around 5 a.m., partially clothed and passed out on a walking path between the Victoria and Broadway bridges. She was hospitalized with a blood-alcohol content of .36.

“This was a near fatal level of intoxication,” Crooks said.

The girl, now 18, testified that she has no memory of having sex that night. Her last memory is of sitting on a bench and being kissed by both friends. Her next memory is waking up in the hospital.

Sentencing arguments are scheduled for May 24.