YouTuber on trial for sexual assault
Former McMaster University student testifies about date with Jack Densmore on west Mountain
Warning: This story contains graphic testimony of an alleged sexual assault.
He has posted videos of himself hitting on drunk female university students and signing their breasts. And made videos encouraging students to have sex with multiple partners during unsanctioned homecoming parties. In other videos, he schools male students on taking “consent videos” to avoid allegations of rape.
Now Jack Densmore, a notorious Hamilton YouTuber banned from numerous campuses across Ontario, is on trial for sexually assaulting a 19-year-old McMaster University student — and videotaping it.
“I remember him grabbing his phone and holding it above me,” the student testified, describing being forced to perform oral sex on a first date that was supposed to be a hike and dinner — neither of which occurred. “I pulled away and said ‘What are you doing?’ He said ‘I’m filming you.’ I said, ‘I didn’t say you could do that.’ He said ‘Ok, no worries.’ And he put the phone away.”
After that, Densmore vaginally raped her, she told the court.
Densmore, who goes by Jack Denmo online where some of his videos have 10 million views, is accused of sexually assaulting the woman on Aug. 5, 2020. His trial is being heard by Superior Court Justice John Krawchenko, without a jury.
The student, now 22 and about to graduate from university — one she transferred to after reporting Densmore to police — was the trial’s first witness on Friday.
Her identity is protected by a publication ban.
In a separate matter, involving a different woman, Densmore is also charged with sexual assault, voyeurism and distributing intimate images. That trial is pending.
Wearing a dark suit and tie, Densmore sat ramrod straight at the counsel table taking notes beside his lawyer, Mark Fahmy. A halfdozen or more supporters sat behind them in the courtroom as the student explained how she met the controversial social-media personality. He is banned from being on McMaster University campus, although the university has previously refused to say why, only that it does not have to do with criminal matters.
In the fall of 2019, while in her first year at Mac, the student and her friends went to HoCo — an unofficial homecoming street party. Densmore was there with his friends, filming a video.
“Word had kind of gotten around that they were filming there,” the student told the court. She already knew who Densmore was because, like many university students, she had watched his videos. One of his friends who was interviewing partygoers stopped to talk with her.
“He asked if I would kiss him for the camera and I said no.”
In July 2020, while on the dating app Tinder, the student was matched with Densmore. Within a day he contacted her through Instagram. After a couple of weeks of texting and one failed attempt at a date — the student cancelled “because I wanted to see my grandmother” — they arranged to meet at Densmore’s home on Hamilton Mountain.
It was 8:30 p.m. when the student arrived. Densmore’s roommates were out. He took her to the basement to show her his “filming equipment for his YouTube channel,” she told the court.
Then they went out in his car looking for a trail to walk. But it was getting dark, the Mountain brow trail was busy and they returned to his home.
Densmore had a beer, the student declined.
They ended up in his bedroom, sitting on his bed and watching the TV show “Brooklyn 99.”
She still thought they’d at least go out for dinner.
“I’m feeling a little apprehensive,” she said, “because the date wasn’t turning out the way I thought it would.”
Halfway through the show, Densmore and the student began kissing. She said it was consensual.
“That changed when the kissing progressed to more heavy touching and it became painful,” she testified.
She said Densmore removed her shirt and pulled down her dress to expose her breasts, which he bit.
“That was so painful, I pushed him away.”
He then pushed her onto her back, got on top of her and digitally penetrated her, also causing pain. She again tried to push him away.
The student testified she did not say anything. Densmore, however, repeatedly called her “a slut.”
“Then he told me to get on the floor.”
Standing over her, he took off his pants and forced her to perform fellatio, she testified.
Assistant Crown attorney Bruce Sosa asked the witness what she was thinking.
“I’m thinking I don’t want to do this anymore,” she responded. “This is a situation I don’t want to be in. And I’m trying to think of how to get out of it.”
It was then she saw the phone in Densmore’s hand and realized he was recording her.
When Densmore moved to put his phone down, the student got up and got dressed. He was still naked from the waist down.
The student said he started kissing and touching her again before pushing her onto her stomach on the bed and penetrating her.
“He continued to have sex with me for a few minutes before he pulled out and ejaculated on my back … I kind of felt like I’d left my body a little bit.”
She went to the bathroom and began crying, then returned to the bedroom to grab her purse.
“He was still in his bedroom. He was very relaxed as if nothing had happened … He said he has a long day tomorrow and I should be going.”
The student was sobbing so hard after leaving that she had to pull her car off the road. She texted two girlfriends and told them what happened.
“I felt violated, like something had happened to me that I didn’t consent to and that I didn’t want to happen and that I wasn’t respected as a person.”
Within the hour, the three young women were at a Shoppers Drug Mart getting emergency contraceptives.
The next morning, the student told her stepmother what happened.
A rape kit was done at Hamilton General Hospital. Court heard that a “black light” detected semen on her back and a nurse gave her antibiotics to protect her against HIV, since no condom was used.
Eventually, the student reported the alleged sexual assault to Hamilton police.
“I felt like it was something I needed to do for my own healing and for justice.”
The student was sobbing so hard after leaving that she had to pull her car off the road. She texted two girlfriends and told them what happened