Man jailed for sexual assault of unconscious woman

A 20-year-old man will spend the next two-and-a-half years behind bars for raping a drug-addicted woman in a Niagara Falls hotel room as she slipped in and out of consciousness.

“All members of society have the right to be safe, even those with addiction issues,” Judge Harrison Arrell said.

In Superior Court of Justice in Welland on Wednesday, Jordan Kuchmistrz pleaded guilty to several charges including sexual assault stemming from the March 2, 2017, incident.

The judge said the details of the case were “disgusting” and “disturbing.”

Court heard Kuchmistrz and 54-year-old Craig Goss were living at a Lundy’s Lane hotel in the spring of 2017 after both were released from jail.

Goss contacted a female acquaintance on March 2 under the guise of a drug transaction.

When she arrived at the room, Goss gave the woman what she thought was cocaine.

Soon after she injected the substance, court was told, the woman collapsed on the floor and began to convulse.

The woman slipped in and out of consciousness but told detectives she recalled waking up to Kuchmistrz having sexual intercourse with her.

Assistant Crown attorney Robert Mahler told the judge the complainant never consented to any sexual activity.

After the sexual assault, court heard, Goss climbed on top of the woman and began kicking and punching her, saying “this is what happens when you owe people money.” The woman maintained she didn’t owe any money and was subsequently able to flee from the room.

Goss pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges of forcible confinement and assault causing bodily harm stemming from the hotel attack.

Goss was sentenced to time served, having spent the equivalent of 30 months behind bars in pretrial custody, and placed on probation for three years.

Kuchmistrz also pleaded guilty to an unrelated charge of assault with a weapon stemming from an incident at Niagara Detention Centre that left a corrections officer with a laceration to his head that required eight staples to close.

The judge imposed a five-year jail term, minus credit for 30 months Kuchmistrz had spent in pretrial custody.