Woman testifies ex-boyfriend raped her before holding knife to her neck | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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Kamloops News

Woman testifies ex-boyfriend raped her before holding knife to her neck

A 29-year-old Kamloops woman testified today in Kamloops provincial court that her ex-boyfriend raped her while she was sleeping in her bed with their child before locking her in their home, holding a knife to her neck and threatening to kill her.

"I literally thought I was going to die that night," the woman said.

The accused faces charges of sexual assault, uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm and assault with a weapon. Their names are protected under a court order.

The woman testified that her relationship with the accused had been on and off for a few years and was off at the time of the events leading to the charges. She said the man had been sleeping on the living room couch, and they were not together or having sex.

She said the offence occurred at their North Kamloops four-plex rental unit at about 6 a.m. on June 15, 2011 when she awoke to the accused taking off her shorts. She said he forced unprotected intercourse on her using the weight of his body for one to two minutes as she tried to push him off and told him 'no.' She said she 'didn't want to scream' as their child, just over one-year-old at the time, was in the bed next to them. He allegedly left for work immediately after getting off without saying a word to her.

"I laid in the bed and I cried after," she said. "I just felt gross."

The woman didn't immediately report the incident, saying she thought police would think she was just 'crazy' for accusing the father of their child — a man who also lived with her — of rape.

"I just felt like people would have laughed at me," she said.

While she said she knew it was wrong, she said she continued on with her plans for the day, watching the NHL Stanley Cup playoff final hockey game between the Vancouver Canucks and the Boston Bruins at a friends house with the accused. The four of them shared a 12-case of beer while cheering on the Canucks — the man cheering on the Bruins who ultimately won. The woman said they had fought for the majority of the evening and continued to do so all the way home.

"He was just going off on anything and everything," she said.

At the house, she said things went from bad to worse.

She told the court that the man locked her in the house and threatened to kill her with a knife, all the while revealing acts of betrayal he had committed behind her back.

"He was saying, 'You're fucking dead,'" she said. "He was like, "I'm telling you all of this because you're not going to see tomorrow."

She added that he told her he knew how to 'work' the court system and would get minimal time for killing her. The woman said she managed to escape with her baby only when the man went to the bathroom.

She said she ran into the street without grabbing her shoes, her child only in his diaper, and flagged down a passing car to take her to the police station.

"I was so scared," she said.

She told the court she temporarily stayed at a women's shelter before spending some time in Lillooet, B.C. where she is from, and ultimately leaving Kamloops and moving to Calgary a few months later.

"There was a time I felt like he was stalking me," she said. "Kamloops is a small place."

Defence lawyer Don Campbell suggested it was the woman's decision to live with the man despite her family not approving of him.

He also asked why she never went to the hospital after the alleged rape.

"I was more concerned about me and my son's safety," she said, adding the thought hadn't crossed her mind.

The Crown is expected to call one more witness in the case before the defence calls three witnesses.

To contact a reporter for this story, email: jwallace@infotelnews.ca, call: (250) 319-7494 or tweet: @jess__wallace.

News from © iNFOnews, 2013
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