(CBC News) – A Yukon Supreme Court judge began hearing the case Monday of two RCMP officers accused of sexually assaulting a woman in the town of Watson Lake last year.
Graham Belak, 30, and Shawn McLaughlin, 33, are both on trial for sexual assault in relation to an incident on March 8, 2009, when a woman in Watson Lake alleged that two off-duty Mounties raped her.
Justice Leigh Gower is presiding over the trial, for which Belak and McLaughlin have elected to be tried by judge alone. The woman’s name is protected by a publication ban.
The officers were suspended with pay after the sexual assault allegations were made. Both have since left Watson Lake, as has the woman who made the allegations.
Met at party
On Monday afternoon, Watson Lake RCMP Const. Louis Allain testified that the woman appeared to be drunk when she met Belak and McLaughlin at a house party.
Allain told the court he had McLaughlin and Belak over to his home earlier in the night to watch Ultimate Fighting Championship bouts, then they went to the house party where they continued drinking.
McLaughlin invited the woman to get closer to him, and she sat on his lap, Allain said, adding that she appeared to have become very drunk over the course of the night.
Belak and McLaughlin later decided to go to Belak’s house, and they invited the woman along, Allain said.
But under cross-examination, defence lawyer Andrew McKay argued that Allain had consumed about 10 beers and a couple of shots of liquor that night, so he could not have been a very good judge of the woman’s state of intoxication.
Contradictory testimony
Earlier on Monday, the court heard contradictory testimony from two health-care professionals who both examined the woman after the alleged attack took place.
The first witness, Dr. Danielle Sergeeva, said she examined the woman at the Watson Lake hospital about 36 hours after the alleged attack.
Sergeeva said the woman first told her she thought she had been sexually assaulted but wasn’t sure. On a second occasion, as Sergeeva conducted the rape examination at the hospital, she said the woman gave more detail.
The woman said she had been partying with Belak and McLaughlin at Belak’s house when McLaughlin held her arms down and Belak raped her, according to Sergeeva’s testimony.
Sergeeva said she found no injuries consistent with a rape.
But Katherine Relcoff, a nurse who was present at the examination, told the court that there were bruises that appeared to resemble handprints on the woman’s thighs.
As well, one knee was bruised and there was swelling on the woman’s tailbone, Relcoff said. Sergeeva had said the swelling was due to some fatty tissue.
Relcoff said she had spent much of the day with the woman and heard her consistently recount her allegations a couple of times.
Up to five days have been set aside for the trial.
Recent Comments