Accused calls Crown’s questions inappropriate
Testifies that sex with fellow York student was consensual
The man accused of sexually assaulting a fellow York University PhD student called a line of questioning by the Crown “inappropriate” during cross-examination Tuesday, suggesting it would not have happened if “the tables were turned.”
Mustafa Ururyar, 29, testified in his own defence as his trial resumed Tuesday, telling the court there was only a consensual sexual encounter on the night of Jan. 31, 2015 between him and Mandi Gray.
Ururyar’s lawyer Lisa Bristow has suggested Gray made up the sexual assault as revenge for Ururyar ending their relationship.
Gray, who has waived the court’s typical publication ban on the identity of complainants in sexual assault cases, testified that she had been casually dating Ururyar for about two weeks when the alleged rape happened.
She had texted him earlier that eve- ning to “come drink and then we can have hot sex.”
But as they went back to his apartment after drinking with fellow students at two bars, she says he suddenly began to berate her, criticizing her drinking and calling her “needy” and an “embarrassment.”
He raped her in his bedroom, she told the court.
Ururyar denied this in his testimony.
He told Ontario Court Justice Marvin Zuker that he and Gray got to his place at about 2:30 a.m. He denied being angry and saying anything insulting to Gray who seemed “buzzed” from the drinks she’d had that night but not impaired.
She told him she was looking forward to having sex with him, he said.
“I said I would try but couldn’t promise I’d be able to physically. I was still recovering from a cold I’d had all week,” he said.
He abruptly decided to end their relationship just after they had partially undressed, gotten into bed and she had leaned in to kiss him, he said.
He told her they were not compatible. He said she began to cry, he tried to console her and they proceeded to have consensual sex.
Ururyar said the breakup was prompted in part by him being annoyed that night by Gray briefly rubbing his upper thigh — he used the term “groping” — as they sat next to each other at a table. He asked her to stop and she did, but she repeated the action a second time later on, coming closer to his groin, he told the court. He said he did not like to show affection in public spaces.
“Your upper thigh was attacked and rubbed,” said Crown attorney Jenni- fer Lofft in cross-examination.
“I think this line of questioning is inappropriate,” Ururyar responded.
“If the tables were turned and someone had told you that I was groping Mandi, you wouldn’t be risking this sort of questioning.”
“Perhaps I should just sit down, Your Honour, and I’ll allow Mr. Ururyar to complete the rest of the crossexamination,” Lofft said.
Ururyar apologized and Zuker instructed the Crown to ask the question again.
Lofft suggested that Ururyar believed he was going to fulfil a longtime fantasy about having a threesome that night and became angry when it did not happen.
Ururyar denied that he was fixated on the idea of a threesome and repeated that he was not feeling well that night any way.
Ururyar also testified he was in an open relationship with his girlfriend, who lived in Montreal at the time, and said Gray had previously been upset by him mentioning his girlfriend, who was moving to Toronto in April. That was one of the reasons he wanted to break up, he said.
Lofft suggested the relationship was casual and had only been going on for two weeks, so ending it would not have elicited such strong emotions from Gray.
Lofft asked Ururyar to explain the text he sent Gray five days after the alleged assault: “I am sorry things went as they did. I shouldn’t have said and done some of the things I did. I was upset and felt wronged by you but that does not excuse my own mistakes.”
Ururyar said he was apologizing for the way the breakup happened.
By feeling wronged, he testified, he was referring to her groping him in a public space despite his earlier objection.
This explanation does not make sense, Lofft argued.
“You were being extremely cautious about what you might want to imply because you knew you had gotten carried away and raped Mandi Gray. Because you were annoyed with her,” Lofft said.
“I was annoyed with her,” Ururyar said. “I did not rape her.”
Closing submissions in the case are scheduled for May 24.