Off-duty cop asked to be choked during rough sex: murder accused

HALIFAX — Christopher Garnier choked back tears as he testified Monday at his murder trial, telling the jury that off-duty police officer Catherine Campbell encouraged him to choke and slap her before she died.

Garnier’s lawyer, Joel Pink, opened the defence case by telling the 14-member Nova Scotia Supreme Court jury that Campbell, 36, died accidentally during “rough sex” that she had initiated. He then called his client to the stand.

Garnier, 30, said he had broken up with his girlfriend on Sept. 10, 2015, and went to stay at a friend’s apartment on McCully Street in Halifax’s north end. They smoked cannabis, drank alcohol and later went downtown to take his mind off the breakup and to celebrate Garnier’s new job.

Garnier said he met Campbell at the Halifax Alehouse in the early hours of Sept. 11, 2015. He said they danced and kissed before leaving the bar about 3:30 a.m. and going back to his friend’s flat.

There, Campbell asked Garnier if he was “into domination,” he said.

“I didn’t really say anything,” said Garnier, who testified he had never participated in domination before. He said he told her he didn’t want to have sex and she said: “That doesn’t mean we can’t play.”

“She asked me to choke her,” he said. “She told me it was OK and not to worry.”

He said he put pressure on her neck with one hand, but she asked him to squeeze harder, so he started using his other hand as well. He had both hands on her neck for 30 seconds, he said.

“I don’t think I was using very much force,” said Garnier, who appeared emotional throughout his testimony as he spoke directly to the jury. “If she ever resisted, I would have stopped.”

He said she then asked him to slap her. “I did it three times, fast,” he said.

He said she then grabbed his arm and pushed it on her neck, and that he felt his arm getting wet, and saw blood.

Garnier said he went to get a towel and when he returned, she wasn’t moving. He said he shook her shoulders and saw her open her eyes and gasp.

He told the jury he doesn’t remember putting Campbell in a wheeled compost bin to dispose of her body near Halifax’s Macdonald Bridge.

Garnier has pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murder of the Truro, N.S., police constable and interfering with a dead body.