Teens acquitted of sexual assault
Victim testified she was extremely intoxicated and had passed in and out of consciousness
Sobs of joy and anguish filled a St. Catharines courtroom Thursday as a judge dismissed charges against four Niagara Falls high school football players who were charged with raping a woman in the back seat of a car following an alcoholfueled house party.
On one side of the gallery, mothers of two of the defendants from A.N. Myer Secondary School sobbed in relief.
On the other side, the complainant buried her head in the shoulder of a supporter and sobbed in despair.
Shouts of “Yes, Yes, Yes,” from someone celebrating on the defendants’ side of the gallery were met, on the other side, with an icy stare from the complainant’s exboyfriend.
Judge Fergus O’Donnell presided over the non-jury trial, which lasted two weeks, in the Ontario Court of Justice. He prefaced his verdict by addressing the complainant, who spent four days on the stand.
“As an observer of how this regrettable narrative played out over two weeks of testimony, I do not believe the complainant has anything for which to blame herself,” he said. “She has her recollection of how things played out, and her memory may well be the true narrative. She came forward with courage and ran the gauntlet of a criminal trial with dignity.
“Ultimately though, the standard of proof I must apply, as a judge in a criminal trial, is an extremely exacting one. Any belief I, or anyone else, have may very well be true, or may very well be likely, or even
highly likely — but that is not the test.”
O’Donnell said the law demands the Crown prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt and he was not satisfied it met that burden.
“On the evidence before me, convictions would be unsafe,” he said.
The trial heard from seven witnesses, including five friends of the teenagers, a scientist from the Centre for Forensic Sciences, and the complainant herself.
The accused, who were 16 and 17 at the time of their arrests, cannot be named under provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, nor can the complainant, whose name is also covered by a mandatory publication ban on victims of sexual assault. The witnesses, who are also underage, cannot be named either.
The court heard that dozens of high school students from Denis Morris Catholic High School in St. Catharines and A.N. Myer in Niagara Falls between the ages of 15 and 18 attended the party in August of 2016 at a St. Catharines residence.
As the party wound down in the early morning hours, the intoxicated victim had a dispute with a close friend and decided to leave. When her boyfriend, who was in his 20s, wouldn’t pick her up, she forced her way into the car of one of the defendants and sprawled across the laps of three teens in the back seat. She then demanded a ride to her then boyfriend’s house in Thorold.
Sexual activity took place on the trip from St. Catharines and at a school parking lot in Thorold, across the street from her boyfriend’s home.
The victim testified said she passed in and out of consciousness in the back seat. The court heard she eventually left the car screaming in terror, with her pants and underwear around her ankles. The court also heard conflicting testimony from a witness in the car that she did consent.
O’Donnell said he had found inconsistencies and disconnects in the evidence presented by both sides.
“The issues here focus on consent,” O’Donnell said. “Was the complainant capable of consent? For example, did she understand the nature of the acts in the car to the degree that she could reject them or agree with them?
“This is an area in which judges have come under criticism in the past, but we must remember a drunk person can have the required capacity to consent to sex. The person can even be quite intoxicated and still have that capacity.”