Assault alleged at bonfire

Trial begins for man accused of sexually assaulting woman in C.B.S. last winter

The trial of a man accused of sexually assaulting a young woman around a bonfire in C.B.S. last January got underway Monday, with the court hearing testimony from eight witnesses by the end of the day.

Thomas Patrick Mcgrath, 41, has pleaded not guilty to an allegation that he sexually assaulted the woman by digitally penetrating her and forcing her to give him oral sex after the pair were left alone by a bonfire Jan. 28.

Police officers, taxi company representatives and a sexual assault nurse took the stand at provincial court in St. John’s throughout the day, telling the court about their involvement in the matter.

Crown prosecutor Shawn Patten also played a video of Mcgrath’s interview with police, in which he told investigators he had met the woman that night at a gathering around a fire at a mutual acquaintance’s house.

The woman told police she had reluctantly danced with Mcgrath before telling him that she was cold and wanted to go back near the fire. She said he asked her to sit on his lap and she refused, but he pulled her down to sit on him anyway. That’s when he assaulted her, she said, penetrating her aggressively.

The woman told police she managed to call 911 by pushing the side button on her iphone five times, activating an emergency feature. The call dropped and dispatch called back, but the woman said she was unable to get to her phone because it was on the ground. She said she later managed to escape.

The woman went home and then to the hospital, where nurses performed a sexual assault exam on her, finding a bruise on her arm, broken blood vessels on the roof of her mouth, and redness and tenderness in her genital area and cervix.

“She was tearful, shaking, had makeup running down her face and there was mud on her pants up to the knees,” one nurse testified.

Forensic identification officers took the woman’s mudstained pants as well as her underwear, which was stained with blood. According to investigators, the woman had not had a menstrual cycle in more than a year due to birth control medication.

“I’m just trying to understand what happened here,” RNC investigator Chelsea Guinchard told Mcgrath during his interview.

“So am I,” Mcgrath replied, saying he hadn’t sexually assaulted the woman.

Mcgrath acknowledged he and the woman had been the last two people at the bonfire, and said the woman had left for her friend’s house, where she was staying. She returned shortly thereafter, he said, crying because she was locked out and had nowhere to go.

“I told her she had one of two options,” Mcgrath said. “She could get a taxi home or she could come and sleep on my couch. She called a cab and went on home or somewhere.”

Patten presented a 911 dispatch log from the night in question, indicating a call had come in from the woman’s cellphone shortly before 3 a.m. He played the recording of the call for the court; music and wind could be heard before the call ended. When the operator called back, the phone appeared to ring a number of times before going to voicemail.

A taxi driver testified to having picked a woman up at the address of the bonfire that night, saying she “cried the whole time, from the minute she got in until the minute I dropped her off, face in her hands.”

Defence lawyer Jason Edwards chose not to cross-examine any of Monday’s witnesses, but noted a report submitted by Dr. Simon Avis, the province’s chief medical examiner, indicated he had reviewed the results of the woman’s pelvic exam and determined the findings to be non-specific.

“While they could have occurred as a result of trauma, such findings could also occur as a result of natural processes, including infections or chemical irritation,” Avis wrote.

Swabs taken from the woman’s mouth and genitals were forensically tested and revealed no other DNA apart from her own, the court heard.

Mcgrath’s trial continues Tuesday.