Trial told women shocked by break-in, sex assault

Two women who reported being sexually assaulted during a break and enter into their home in the summer of 2016 were in disbelief after it happened, police told a Kelowna court Wednesday.

Shea Gardecki is charged with one count of breaking and entering and two counts of sexual assault.

On Aug. 23, 2016, two young women were sleeping on a mattress in the living room of a townhouse on Highland Drive North in Kelowna.

“Both women woke up when they felt someone touching their legs, their buttocks and their genitals,” the Crown prosecutor told the jury in her opening statement. “When they lifted up the blanket, they saw that a strange man had crawled under the blanket and onto the mattress between them.” Crown argues that man was Gardecki. One of the women asked the man what he was doing there, and he said he was there with a friend.

No one else was in the townhouse at the time, said the prosecutor. The woman told him to leave, which he did. “He left the living room and started down the stairs to the first floor.”

On the stairs, the man encountered the boyfriend of one of the women and another man.

The suspect claimed he had the wrong unit and continued down the stairs.

When the women told the two men what had happened, they ran out of the townhouse after the suspect.

They observed him in the distance, running east along Highland Drive North, then returned to the townhouse to put their shoes on, the jury heard.

By the time the men got back outside, the suspect was no longer in sight.

About 20 minutes after the incident, the women called police.

Const. Apollonia De Jong was one of the officers who attended the scene and spoke with the women.

“I found both of them to be quite incredulous,” said De Jong. “They were astonished somebody just came into their house. They were worried, shocked, a range of emotions. (It) seemed like they didn’t quite know what to do about the whole thing.”

De Jong took statements from both women that night, and said by that time both women were crying and their voices were unsteady.

“They were thinking more how this would affect them long term,” she said.

Another officer located Gardecki in the 1500 block of Highland Road North and took him into custody. Gardecki is currently out on bail. The trial continues.