Intruder first ordered women to squat, trial hears

‘I was afraid if I didn’t open the door, the person would break the glass and hurt me’

A former University of Victoria international student was cleaning her ground-floor apartment with her roommate on the night of Jan. 27, 2016, when she heard the low voice of a man commanding her to squat.

As she and her roommate squatted, there was knocking on the living room window so loud she feared the glass would shatter, the young woman testified Monday in B.C. Supreme Court. And the same low voice said “Open the door.”

“I was afraid if I didn’t open the door, the person would break the glass and hurt me,” she testified through an interpreter. “He said: ‘Open the door’ again … a little angry. My roommate was behind me and said: ‘Don’t open the door.’ ”

The young woman, whose name is protected by a court order, flew from Asia this weekend to testify about the frightening events of that night.

David Robert Hope, a muscular man of average height, who is bald and has tattoos on his neck, is charged with two counts of sexual assault, two counts of unlawful confinement, two counts of robbery and one count of break and enter with intent to commit an indictable offence.

As she gave her evidence, the young woman was shielded from view by a screen. Her roommate testified last week in the same way.

The young woman said she unlocked the door and a man wearing a hoodie over his head came into the apartment. She couldn’t see his face clearly. He wore black gloves on his hands.

“He told us to go to the bedroom. I went in first, then my roommate. … He asked us to go on the bed. … His voice was a command,” she testified.

The young women got on the bed. She thought he told them to close their eyes and they would play a game.

“Then he told us to take off our clothes,” she testified. “I took off everything except for panties.”

“Did he say anything to you?” asked prosecutor Patrick Weir.

“When he said he wanted us to take off our clothes, I said ‘No.’ And he repeated it with anger, with a louder voice. I thought maybe he would hurt me.”

Her roommate also took off all her clothes except her panties.

Then the man told them to take off their panties. “I told him I was having my period so I would not take them off.”

The man left her alone, but walked behind her roommate and gave her a hard push. He had one hand on her waist and his right hand was touching her private parts. He ripped her underwear off, the young woman testified.

Her roommate was struggling and saying: “No.” She kept struggling and got out of his grip.

When the young woman saw the man touch her friend, she immediately offered him money.

“We said: ‘We’ll give you money. Don’t touch us anymore.’ ”

She gave him a coin box with about $100 in loose change. The man put the change in his pocket and threw the box on the bed.

She could tell he wasn’t satisfied, so she said she had money in the bank and would give it to him. “I just wanted him to leave the apartment,” she said.

The students were allowed to get dressed. All three left the apartment through the back door. The man started chatting to them “to get us in a better mood,” she said.

She noticed that he had taken her roommate’s cellphone before they left the apartment. “He told us not to play tricks. He told us not to call police because he knows where we live and he can come back and look for us.”

They walked down Church Street, then onto Shelbourne Avenue. The students went inside alone at the first bank. The young woman sent a text telling a friend to come and rescue them.

She came out and told the man she couldn’t get any money out of that machine.

They crossed the street and went to another bank in Shelbourne Plaza. Both women withdrew money and gave it to the man, along with the receipt, which he had asked for.

“Then he tried to make us go back to the apartment,” she testified. “I said no because I knew we would be in danger. Then he said: ‘Don’t you want your cellphone back?’ ” “We said no and he ran away.” The two student ran into a -Starbucks and asked for help in calling the police.

Weir asked the witness to look at Hope and see whether she recognized him.

“Yes,” she said. “This person looks like the person from that night.”

Defence lawyer Ryan Drury asked the young woman about her statements to police in which she described the intruder as having a light tan and a little facial stubble.

The Crown is expected to close its case today.