High River man denies wife’s sex assault, choking charges

AHigh River man admitted he struck his estranged common-law wife four times in the face and mouth after she grabbed his genitals, but said he never sexually assaulted, choked or confined her in her home two years ago.

The 37-year-old man, who was the father of the woman’s three youngest children, said he only went to the woman’s home on the night of April 19, 2010, despite a restraining order forbidding him to do so, because she “threatened to call the police, then she threatened to take pills.”

He said he had been corresponding with the 30-year-old woman all day by text and phone and that the discussions got volatile after about 8:30 p.m.

Then, he said, she told him she was concerned he would leave and not help her with the children, and that he was only concerned about himself and had done nothing about them getting married.

When she threatened to kill herself, he said he drove over to her home, where he no longer had been living for a couple of months.

A male roommate later testified he tried to talk him out of it, because he was concerned for his friend and the woman had threatened harm on herself before. However, when he came out of the bathroom after having a shower, the man was gone.

Quickly, the situation became physical, the accused said.

“She was coming at me, three or four inches from my face. She was mad,” he told his lawyer, Jim Lutz. “Then she grabbed me there (the genitals).

I struck her in the face with my hands. I think I struck her quite a few times in the face . . . three or four times.”

The man said his ex-wife was then trying to push him down and he struck her again on the side of the face, grabbed her arm and pushed her down onto the couch in the living room.

“I gave her a good shove, I’d say it was pretty hard,” he said. “I moved towards the front door, because I’d already done something I knew I’d be in trouble for. She grabbed my hand and wouldn’t let me go.”

The accused, who is on trial for aggravated assault, aggravated sexual assault, choking with intent, unlawful confinement and break and enter to commit sexual assault, said he finally got out the front door and to his vehicle as she was yelling at him and saying “she’d ruin me.”

He said her face was red and there was some blood around her mouth when he left.

The man denied the incident occurred in the basement or that he had entered the home unannounced through the back door, or that there was any sexual connotation to the altercation, and both of them had on their clothes.

He said he later spoke to her on the phone and apologized, saying he never thought the situation would go so far. He said she told him she was not sure if she was going to call the police.

The man testified he texted her again later, saying he was sorry, but got no reply. He was arrested a few hours later by the RCMP.

The roommate told Lutz he heard numerous calls during that time frame in which the woman yelled at him and threatened harm on herself if he didn’t get back to her home right away.

However, the roommate’s mother said she also saw the accused and his estranged wife and their children in church on several occasions, including the day before the incident, and they seemed to be happy together.

The woman testified earlier that her ex-common-law husband burst into her home that night when she was letting her puppy out, dragged her down the basement stairs into her bedroom, then repeatedly punched and raped her.

The woman testified Monday that she had broken off the relationship about three months before the incident and had the emergency protection order to prevent the accused from attending at her home.

She said she received numerous text messages and phone calls from the accused all through that day, as she usually did, and she ignored some and answered some.

The trial continues before Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Karen Horner.