Judge rejects man’s claim he didn’t assault daughter’s friend in Niagara Falls hotel

A Toronto man who sexually assaulted his teenaged daughter’s friend at a Niagara Falls hotel will return to court in July for sentencing.

The defendant, who cannot be named in order to protect the identity of the victim, had pleaded not guilty at trial to charges of sexual assault and sexual interference. He adamantly denied the charges and said, regardless of her claims, he would never have sex with anyone without a condom as he had hepatitis C, and would risk being charged with “assault or murder” if he had unprotected sex.

The man’s daughter testified on his behalf, saying her former friend could not have been sexually assaulted by her father as they were left alone in the hotel room for a only a short period of time.

In Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines Monday, Judge Fergus ODonnell found the man guilty of both charges, saying he rejected the evidence of the defendant and his daughter.

“The reason that I reject (the offender’s) evidence and his daughter also is that I find the evidence led by the Crown to be honest and reliable,” the judge said in his decision.

“(The victim’s) description of what happened, and how she processed it in the moment and later … all of it was remarkably plausible and entirely convincing.

There was nothing that came across rehearsed or fabricated.”

The victim’s mother testified her daughter’s behaviour changed dramatically after she returned from an overnight trip to Niagara Falls, which is said to have occurred in either March 2014 or March 2015 when the child was 13 or 14.

Court heard the victim and the defendant’s daughter, both in Grade 7 at the time, were “good friends” but their relationship ended soon after their visit to Niagara. Her mother believed the two girls simply had a falling out, yet her daughter refused to talk about what happened.

The victim testified she and the defendant were in the hotel room alone when the man began to touch her.

She pushed his hand away, she said, however, the man told her “it was OK, because his daughter was immature and she was mature and didn’t need to be scared.”

The complainant was then sexually assaulted by the older man.

The victim in 2019 disclosed to her mother what had happened in the hotel room years earlier, court heard, and the mother immediately contacted police.

The offender will return to court in July for sentencing.