THUNDER BAY – A judge will now decide whether two former University of Ottawa hockey players are guilty of sexual assault.
Closing arguments were made on Friday, concluding a 10-day trial against Guillaume Donovan and David Foucher, the two players charged after an alleged incident in a Thunder Bay hotel room on Feb. 2, 2014 during the Gee-Gees road trip.
The complainant, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, had connected with Gee-Gees player Taylor Collins through an online dating app. The two met at a local bar following the team’s Saturday night game against the Lakehead Thunderwolves and after spending a few hours together at the bar she agreed to go with Collins to the team’s hotel.
Collins and the complainant were having sexual intercourse in a room she believed they were alone when she spotted a naked man. The complainant told the court she believed there were a total of four men in the room – three others and Collins – with two of those unidentified men engaging her in unwanted sexual contact.
Testifying in his defence on Thursday, Donovan said he entered the room with the intention of joining in and had sexual intercourse with the complainant but believed it to be consensual. He told the court Collins had asked the complainant if she was OK with two, to which she agreed.
Donovan added there was no indication from the complainant that his involvement was unwanted.
His lawyer, Christian Deslauriers, said he believes the case hinges on reasonable doubt when speaking to media at the end of the day.
“I have no doubt there was reasonable doubt from the start until the end,” Deslauriers said.
“The Crown’s case raised many issues about the credibility of the complainant, credibility of different witnesses and the defence decided to present a defence to offer the judge other tools in order to asses everyone’s credibility.”
Credibility was a theme Deslauriers heavily emphasized during his closing arguments, pointing specifically to discrepancies between the complainant’s testimony and police statements, as well as conflicts between her evidence and the accounts of other witnesses.
“She lied to your face,” Deslauriers said in court to Ontario Court Justice Chantal Brochu.
Crown prosecutor Marc Huneault argued that there is a particular significance in receiving clear, verbal consent before participating a sexual act when the two people aren’t previously known to each other. He also questioned how Collins would have known Donovan wanted to participate if the two did not have that discussion in the room.
Huneault urged Brochu that the only evidence she needed to accept from the complainant was that in her mind the sexual activity was not wanted and that there were two men that assaulted her.
Lawyer Celina Saint-Francois, who represents Foucher, insisted there was no evidence that proved her client had physical contact with the complainant.
Foucher had also taken the stand on Thursday, admitting he was naked in the room but said it was meant to be a joke with Donovan and the complainant was not supposed to know he was present.
During her testimony, the complainant said she heard a man with a deep voice and French accent inside the room. She said she believed it was the same voice as a redheaded man she was introduced to outside the bar as the team’s captain. In a statement to police she said that man in the room had the same red hair.
Brochu is scheduled to deliver her decision on June 25.
