Chris Carter arrested on four new charges
Man on trial for sexual assault is alleged to have breached his bail conditions at court on first two days of proceedings
On Day 2 of his trial for sexually assaulting two young females, Chris Carter was taken into custody during the lunch break and charged with four new offences.
Carter’s trial at Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court continued Tuesday afternoon, but was halted long enough to allow the court to connect with a provincial courtroom by speaker phone so a judge could officially charge him.
Carter, who was granted bail in 2021 after he was charged with eight sexual violence offences against two girls, remains in the lockup and is scheduled to return to provincial court Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. before his trial at Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court resumes at 10 a.m.
His bail conditions included orders to be of good behaviour and have no contact with the two complainants and members of their family — conditions he is alleged to have breached on Monday and Tuesday while at court.
The Crown has indicated it is opposed to Carter’s release this time around.
His lawyer, Iain Hollett, said he wanted a chance to review the evidence related to the new charges, including video footage, before Carter made any decision on a bail application. Hollett is expected to give an update on the situation Wednesday morning.
The trial was also temporarily halted Tuesday when Carter apparently suffered a panic attack in the prisoner dock as his lawyer was crossexamining the first of the two complainants. Proceedings resumed once Carter had recovered.
Carter, known as a St. John’sarea musician and former bar owner, has pleaded not guilty to two charges each of sexual assault, invitation to sexual touching, sexual interference and sexual exploitation, related to incidents alleged to have occurred between January 2018 and May 2021.
The identities of the two complainants, who are related, are protected by a courtordered publication ban.
Carter was known to the complainants’ family.
The youngest of the complainants, now 17, was the first witness called by prosecutor Ashley Targett to testify. The court viewed a video of her interview with police in May 2021, during which she said Carter had started sexually assaulting her when she was 12 by touching her. The sexual assaults “became a pattern” when her family members weren’t around, she said, and Carter began having intercourse with her sometime when she was 13. She said he told her that if her family members found out, he would go to jail and they would hate her.
The teenager said Carter assaulted her about 70 times, always apologizing afterward and telling her, “I don’t want to mess you up.”
“Chris is like a scary person. He knows how to manipulate people. I’ve been living a lie for so long,” she said.
On cross-examination, Hollett questioned the complainant about details she had provided in court but not to police, her mental health, and her statement to police about being physically assaulted by a family member, which she later said was not true. Hollett suggested she had told police Carter had sexually assaulted her to draw their attention away from the family member.
“That’s not why I told police that,” the teenager replied.
Hollett also questioned the girl about her effort to recant her statement about Carter.
She responded by saying Carter had made her try to recant the allegations.
Hollett presented the complainant with a series of text messages between her and Carter shortly before she spoke with police, in which she indicated she wanted to stay where he was, instead of being with her family.
The second complainant, now 20, testified tearfully via video from another room in the courthouse. Targett played the video of her 2021 police interview as well, during which she said she was in Grade 9 when Carter first sexually assaulted her, and recalled several specific incidents after that time.
“He would always make sure I wasn’t in the right state of mind,” she told police, saying Carter gave her marijuana and prescription stimulants. She said he told her that he would go to jail and “lose his life” if anyone found out what was going on, and members of her family would hate her.
She said she disclosed the abuse to an adult family member when the other complainant did, but had first denied it.
“If I’m being honest with you, I wanted to take it to the grave. I didn’t want to deal with it,” she said in the interview, crying.
She said she changed her mind when the other girl said Carter had assaulted her the same way.
“When I heard (the other complainant) say it, I felt like, OK, this needs to end,” she said. “I feel a lot of guilt for it because I feel like I should have known he was doing it to her.”
The young woman said she was terrified of Carter, who acted and appeared intimidating and often emotionally manipulated her.
“He’s so good at manipulation. He has a lot of narcissistic traits. You’re feeling constantly like you’re insane because he’s said all these things and played on your emotions,” she told the RNC officer.
The complainant cried at different points while watching her videoed interview in court.
Her testimony will continue when Carter’s trial resumes.