Defendant says woman consented to sex, court told

The friend of a woman who claims she was sexually assaulted by a group of teenagers says one of the teens told her the woman consented to having sex with his friend in the back seat of a car.

“(He) said (the complainant) was fully awake and aware of what was going on,” the 19-year-old woman said in Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines on Wednesday during the trial for four youths from Niagara Falls.

All four, 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 witness, who cannot be named in order to protect the identity of the complainant, testified she organized a surprise party for her then-boyfriend at a St. Catharines home on Aug. 15, 2016.

She said the complainant, a friend she’d known since high school, was extremely intoxicated as the party progressed.

By the end of the party, she told court, her friend was “probably the drunkest I’ve ever seen her.”

The witness said she was shocked when she later learned the woman had accused several teens who had been at the party of rape.

She testified she was familiar with the four teens on trial as they all played on A.N. Myer Secondary School’s football team with her former boyfriend.

She said one of the teens, who she considered a friend at the time, was the designated driver at the party while the others were in various degrees of intoxication from either alcohol or marijuana.

She told assistant Crown attorney Pat Vadacchino she went to Niagara Falls the day after the party and confronted several of the Myer students.

She said one defendant, the designated driver at the party, told her everything that happened in the car was consensual.

He also said, “I wasn’t going to stop my boys from getting laid,” the woman told court.

She said the teen told her the complainant was “throwing herself at them,” and allowing them to touch her breasts and buttocks before she had consensual sexual intercourse with one male.

The witness felt the story was “very choppy,” so she arranged to meet with all four defendants later that day in Niagara Falls.

At the meeting, she told court, several of the teens said they couldn’t recall what happened.

“They were all drunk or high,” she said, adding the driver did most of the talking. (The driver) was their sober mind.”

The complainant, 18 at the time, testified earlier she didn’t consent to any sexual activity. She said she was intoxicated and had passed out in the back of the vehicle, though she did regain consciousness for short periods during the alleged assault.

Court has heard the alleged incident stemmed from an alcoholfuelled teenage house party and ended in the back seat of a car in the parking lot of an elementary school in Thorold.

The complainant’s friend said more than 35 teenagers — between the ages of 15 and 18 — attended her party.

She told court she had a few rules in place that partygoers had to abide by.

Guests could bring their own alcohol or it would also be provided and marijuana was OK but “no hard drugs.”

“Everyone was underage in terms of alcohol?” Vadacchino asked. “Yes,” the teen replied.

The trial continues today before Judge Fergus O’Donnell.