Lawyers spar over conflicting accounts in sailor’s sexual assault case

A military judge is expected to render a decision today in the court martial of a Halifax sailor accused of sexually assaulting a subordinate.

Lawyers for the prosecution and defence gave closing arguments in a Halifax military court on Saturday, both of which largely turned on the question of whose version of the events aboard the HMCS Athabaskan in November 2015 is to believed — defendant Master Seaman Daniel Cooper or the alleged victim, whose name is protected by a publication ban.

Prosecutor Maj. Dominic Martin began his submissions by arguing that Cooper and the junior officer’s accounts of the night of drinking before the alleged incident were “pretty compatible” up until when the sailors returned to their sleeping quarters on the navy destroyer, which was docked in Spain as part of a NATO exercise.

But that’s where their testimonies diverge, lawyers on both sides said.

Cooper, a naval communicator at Canadian Forces Base Halifax, has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault and ill treatment of a subordinate.

The alleged victim has testified that he awoke in his bunk to find Cooper performing oral sex on him.

Under cross-examination Saturday morning, Cooper maintained that he twice asked the junior sailor if he wanted to engage in sexual activity and the other man agreed.

Martin questioned Cooper about what he characterized as inconsistencies between his testimony before the court martial this week and portions of a filmed interview with military police Cooper gave in March 2016, which was voluntary and not sworn under oath.

Cooper told the court martial he withheld certain details during the interview because he did not feel comfortable talking to investigators about a homosexual encounter, but said the account he gave investigators was largely accurate aside from the omission of what he says was a consensual sex act with the junior sailor.

“It’s not an easy thing to talk about, going into the details of a homosexual act with people who aren’t homosexual,” Cooper said, adding that interactions with military police prior to the interview led him to believe the investigators were not interested in hearing his side of the story.

Cooper testified Friday that after a night of drinking, he and the junior sailor went back to their sleeping quarters, and as they were talking by the other man’s locker, he noticed that he had become aroused. Cooper said he asked the junior sailor if he wanted to become intimate and the other man agreed. Cooper told the court martial he then followed the other man to his bunk, asking him another time if he wanted to become intimate before engaging in sexual activity.