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July 12, 2016 - 2:05 PM
LANGUAGE ADVISORY
KAMLOOPS - A jury has heard the emotional 911 phone call from a woman who says she was violently raped with a gun held to her head.
The tape, now nearly seven years old, was played in Kamloops Supreme Court today, July 12. Taylor James Matchett, 28, is facing a charge of sexual assault with a weapon.
In the recording of the call, the woman can be heard giving a detailed description of the suspect and graphic details about the alleged rape.
She told the operator that the suspect threatened to kill her if she went to the police.
"I hope you guys find this creep," she says.
Matchett appeared in court today wearing a white collared shirt and black dress pants. The mother of his child brought in their young son for the first half of today's hearing.
The woman, who cannot be identified due to a court order, took the stand and faced a heated cross-examination by defence lawyer Sheldon Tate. She sobbed during several parts of the hearing, and at one point during questioning, her mother yelled at Tate and she was asked to leave the courtroom.
The woman says she was walking along Tranquille Road on Nov. 11, 2009 when a dark-coloured car drove past her a few times before coming to a stop. Court heard that she approached the car and offered sexual services.
In the woman's original police statement from 2009, she said the man agreed to drive to her home, but instead took her to McArthur Island. The statement says once they arrived, the suspect said he had a surprise for her, and pulled out a handgun.
She originally told police she had been hitch hiking because she wanted to be taken seriously.
"I didn't want to let the police officer know I was prostituting again," she said. "I wouldn't have been taken seriously."
After the suspect pulled the gun out, he told the woman to perform oral sex on him and that if she bit him he would shoot and kill her, she says.
The victim performed oral sex on him for about 10 minutes. According to her statement, the man pulled down his pants and underwear, and he pulled her pants down and shoved her face into the dirt.
There was a disagreement in court about whether the victim's pants were fully off.
"They could have been. I was being raped, I don't know where my pants were," the woman said.
She was raped for roughly 20 minutes, she said. He then walked back toward his car, and she saw that as an opportunity to run.
She ran for about 10 minutes and approached a home, where she told the homeowner she had been raped and needed to call 911.
Tate attacked her credibility by comparing her evidence to her original police statement and the 911 call. Tate asked her why she didn't tell the 911 operator she was a prostitute. The woman said she knew she would have to tell the same story to police and was afraid she wouldn't be taken seriously if they knew she was a prostitute.
In wrapping up his cross examination, Tate argued that the sexual relations were consensual, up until Matchett told the victim his condom broke.
Tate suggested she demanded $500 and told Matchett if she wasn't paid she would "cry rape" to the police. The woman continued to sob when Tate asked her if those statements were true.
"Do you think I'd be going through this if it weren't true? The guy fucking raped me," she said.
The trial is expected to wrap up at the end of this week, and cross examination will continue this afternoon.
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