Shea Gardecki, born 1977, faces two charges of sexual assault and one charge of break and enter with intent to commit an indictable offence stemming from an incident Aug. 23, 2016.
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January 20, 2018 - 11:00 AM
KELOWNA – Jurors heard testimony in Kelowna court yesterday from one of the two women who say Shea Gardecki sexually assaulted them while they slept a year and a half ago.
Police say a man entered a home on Highland Drive North in early evening and "inappropriately touched" two women who were sleeping inside. When the women woke they demanded he leave and he did, police said. The man was later tracked down by a police dog, arrested and charged.
Gardecki, born 1977, faces two charges of sexual assault and one charge of break and enter with intent to commit an indictable offence stemming from an incident Aug. 23, 2016. He lives in Peachland.
In Kelowna Supreme Court yesterday, Jan. 19, one of the women testified she and a friend who lived there were napping on a mattress in a townhouse living room.
She told the six women and six men of the jury she awoke to what she thought was her friend's knee in her back. When she felt something touch her leg and move upwards, she pulled back the blanket to see a stranger in the bed.
“He was laying on his stomach… I don’t recall where his hands were,” she said.
She says the other women in the bed told him “you have to leave” in a forceful voice and the man stood up.
“I remember seeing his butt,” she said.
As the man descended stairs towards the door, he passed two friends just returning from the gym. One of them testified that the man said “wrong unit” and “it happens” as he brushed by.
“We go upstairs and (the victims) are sitting there with a stunned look on their face,” the friend said.
Once the two women told them what had happened, the men ran outside to see him at the end of the street turning the corner.
The friend says they called police immediately after they saw the suspect turn the corner at the end of the street, but the victim who testified yesterday says they went looking for the man. She testified the four of them even knocked on a neighbour's door and asked the resident if they saw anything.
She says they phoned the police when they returned twenty to thirty minutes after the incident.
The jury also heard that by the time police arrived, there were up to a dozen people in the house, according to police records.
The victim denies they had been drinking and were planning on having a party that night.
The trial continues Monday, Jan. 22.
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