Bennett pressed on memory of events
Sexual assault trial continues at courthouse
A Crown prosecutor worked to raise doubt about Robert Harold Bennett’s ability to remember what he did while drunk during a lengthy cross examination of the accused Thursday.
The former chief of the Fort St. James fire department is on trial for allegedly sexually assaulting three women who were volunteer firefighters.
Under questioning from Crown prosecutor Cheryl Tobias, Bennett agreed “it’s possible” he would say and do things he wouldn’t do while sober but denied he would not remember portions of what he had done while drunk. Tobias went on to press Bennett on details of a July 18, 2013 incident in which it’s alleged he reached around Kirsten Rudolph as she was sitting in the common room at the department’s main fire hall and groped one of her breasts.
Bennett has maintained he merely poked Rudolph in her sides after playing with her ponytail and that he had drank six to eight beer at a friend’s home before he was dropped off at the fire hall at his request.
Tobias launched into an exchange on the reasons why he went to the fire hall given his state, with Bennett failing to give a specific answer beyond saying it was his “second home” and wanted to see what was going on. A practice night had ended by the time Bennett had shown up and he found Rudolph and a group of others in the common room.
Asked if he would have been loud, Bennett said he “imagined” he would have been upon entering the room but denied a claim that he had been yelling at the male fire fighters over the state of the training centre or how training went that night, noting he was not at the practice.
— see ‘I OBVIOUSLY, page 5