Sex-assault trial hears of menacing scene

Woman says she found herself next to naked man in a room full of rowdy U.K. sailors

HALIFAX — A young woman described feeling scared and uncomfortable in a room scattered with British navy hockey players in the barracks of a Halifax-area military base, as a naked man lay face down on a bed and other men cheered.

The complainant in the sexual assault trial of U.K. sailor Darren Smalley testified that she became separated from her friend on the evening of April 9, 2015, after they arrived back at the barracks at 12 Wing Shearwater from a beer run.

“I couldn’t understand why she would just disappear for no reason,” she told the Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Halifax. “That’s when I panicked.”

The 38-year-old Smalley, who was participating in a naval hockey tournament at the time, is accused of sexual assault causing bodily harm and participating in a sexual assault involving one or more people.

The woman, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, said when she couldn’t find her friend, she started knocking on doors and calling out her name. She then realized she was alone in a building full of hockey players.

She said a player asked her if she wanted to go back to his room, but she said no, believing there was more safety in numbers.

Unable to find her friend, she decided to go to a room they had been in earlier in the night, but another player she encountered in the hall told her: “You don’t want to go down there.”

The complainant went anyway, as it was the only familiar room to her in the barracks and she felt that her friend might eventually show up there.

She said the room was full of hockey players and a man was naked face-down on a bed. An inappropriate comment — not divulged in court — was made to her, and she made an inappropriate comment in response.

“For me, it was extremely threatening to have a group of people I didn’t know, they’re all together in a small room … the naked man is next to me and so the more scared I got, the more aggressive and assertive I became as well,” said the complainant, who appeared composed throughout her testimony.

“Nothing seemed out of place to the hockey team. They seemed like this is how they would normally spend a Thursday. They were comfortable. They were cheering at the player who was face-down as if this is common practice.”

She said there was “laughing, cheering, snickering. They seemed generally amused by the comment and response.”

“After that, I wanted no more of that room … and I headed to the female washroom,” she said, adding she was standing in the doorway of the room during the roughly one-minute exchange.

Her testimony will continue this morning.

The case once involved four accused, but charges against two of the sailors were dropped.

The Crown stayed charges against another sailor, Simon Radford, earlier in the trial. Radford was in hospital in the United Kingdom with a serious infection.

The charges against Radford can be reinstituted within one year.

Earlier, the trial was shown a short video clip of the friend’s interview with a military police officer on April 11, 2015.

In the video, the friend tells Sgt. Tyler Bruce-Hayes that the complainant had told her at least four men were involved in the incident.

“She was just like … ‘When I came to, I literally couldn’t tell you who it was,’ ” the friend told the investigator, describing what the complainant had told her about the incident.

“She said they were going back and forth, taking turns.”