Officer on trial for sex assault denies women’s accusations

Cop testifies he was helping as they appeared intoxicated

The veteran Toronto police sergeant accused of sexually assaulting two young women in separate, on-duty incidents took the stand at his criminal trial Thursday, denying that he inappropriately touched either woman and claiming he offered them rides for their own safety because they were intoxicated.

Toronto police Sgt. Christopher Heard faces two counts of sexual assault, incidents alleged to have taken place in the fall of 2015, while Heard was on duty and on patrol in the Entertainment District.

In each case, he is accused of picking up a lone young woman in the area of Blue Jays Way and King St. W., offering to drive her home, then sexually assaulting her once she was inside the police vehicle.

The women — whose identities are covered by a publication ban — testified this week that they agreed to get a ride home with Heard because they assumed they could trust him as a police officer. Both said he touched their inner thigh without their consent.

Heard, 46, has pleaded not guilty to both counts.

On the stand, Heard, a married father of three with 27 years on the Toronto force, acknowledged that he did pick up the complainants in the Entertainment District, but only because in both cases the women appeared to him to be intoxicated.

“I could tell that she was drinking quite a bit,” Heard testified in reference to the first complainant, who alleges she was assaulted by Heard on the morning of Sept. 24, 2015.

Spotting the woman alone, fumbling with something on her bike, Heard said he offered to put her bike in the car and drive her home, saying: “You really shouldn’t be riding your bike because you’ve had too much to drink.”

“At any time, when she was in that car, did you touch her thigh?” Heard’s defence lawyer, Gary Clewley, asked in his examination. “Not once,” Heard responded. That complainant testified she was not drunk on the night in question and only had two glasses of wine. She also testified that once Heard arrived at her house, he kept driving, going past her house and taking her to Dundas St. W. when she needed to go to Queen St. W., a claim backed up by Toronto police vehicle tracking data.

“I overshot by a block by accident,” Heard said.

Heard also denied inappropriately touching the second complainant, who alleges the assault occurred at the end of the drive, as she was about to exit the vehicle.

Phone records show communication between Heard and the complainant following the ride — contact Heard said he made to ensure the woman made it into her apartment safely, noting the area was prone to “crack users” and people “doing other terrible things.”

“I took down her number . . . it was my fail safe to make sure she got in safe,” Heard said.

In both cases, Heard acknowledged he did not inform Toronto police dispatch that he was transporting a young woman home. “I should have. It just didn’t seem like a big thing . . . I wasn’t going to be gone for long.”

Heard is also facing misconduct charges under the Ontario Police Services Act in connection to the alleged September assault, including for failing to activate his in-car camera — a failure that means there is no audio or video evidence of his contact with the first complainant.

Earlier Thursday, court heard Toronto police were informed by the Special Investigations Unit, Ontario’s civilian watchdog that investigates police, that Heard had become the subject of a sexual assault investigation three weeks before the second assault is alleged to have occurred. Toronto police spokesperson Meaghan Gray told the Star that after the first charge was laid, Heard was initially suspended, but was later reinstated and “assigned to other duties.” He was suspended with pay after the second charge was laid.

The trial continues Friday.