Sexual activity appeared consensual, witness says

A passenger in the car where a woman claimed she was sexually assaulted by several teenage boys following an alcohol-fuelled house party said the complainant appeared to be a full participant in the sexual activity.

“It seemed totally consensual,” the 18-year-old man said Wednesday in Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines.

The Niagara Falls man, who cannot be named, said he was intoxicated that night but does recall the woman getting into the back seat of his friend’s car. The woman lay across the three males in the back seat.

He said she engaged in ‘mutual kissing” with one of his friends and then unbuttoned her shorts.

“I wasn’t really sure what to think,” he said.

He said the teen she had been kissing slipped his hand inside the woman’s shorts.

“She looked like she was into it the whole time,” the teen said. “It seemed mutual.”

Four Niagara Falls youth, who were 17 at the time of their arrests and cannot be named under provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, have pleaded not guilty to sexual assault and being party to the offence of sexual assault.

The complainant maintains she was unconscious and did not consent to any sexual activity, while the teens have told other young people the woman was awake and an active participant.

Court has heard dozens of teenagers between the ages of 15 and 18 attended the party in August 2016 at a St. Catharines residence.

The partygoers were made up of students from Denis Morris Catholic High School in St. Catharines and A.N. Myer Secondary School in Niagara Falls. The teens on trial were members of Myer’s football team.

While the woman appeared to be under the influence of alcohol, the witness testified she was also looked “awake and aware” of what was going on.

He said another friend also put his hand inside her shorts and a third friend fondled the woman’s breasts.

He said the woman never “sexually touched” the young men and he doesn’t recall her telling them to stop.

He said the group drove to the parking lot of a Thorold elementary school and parked the car. He left the vehicle and urinated nearby.

When he returned to the car, he told court, he saw his friend standing outside the rear open door of the car. His buttocks were bare and he was “moving back and forth.”

While he could see the complainant’s legs, he said it didn’t appear she was moving.

The witness said he was “shocked’ when he learned the woman was claiming she had been raped.

The trial continues Thursday.