The jury trial of a man accused of assault and sexual assault heard from its sole complainant – a woman who tearfully recounted a string of violent incidents she says were carried out by her ex-boyfriend over the span of several years.
"I loved him and I was afraid of him," the woman testified in NWT Supreme Court on Monday.
The 40-year-old man, who isn't being named by Yellowknifer due to the domestic nature of the case, is being tried before a judge and jury after pleading not guilty to one count of sexual assault causing bodily harm, one count of sexual assault, two counts of assault causing bodily harm, one count of assault and one count of uttering threats.
Using a screen – a testimonial aid – to block her from seeing the accused who sat nearby, the woman told Crown prosecutor Jay Potter the first alleged incident occurred in 2012, after she had gone over to the man's apartment.
She testified the two were in a casual relationship and would sometimes meet to have sex, but that on this night she arrived to find an "extremely intoxicated" accused who "shuffled" her up to his bedroom as soon as she entered.
The woman said the man then began to tear her clothes off before having non-consensual sex with her.
She said she pleaded with her ex-boyfriend to stop but he didn't listen.
A year later, the woman said the defendant moved into her Yellowknife apartment, where on one occasion he slapped her multiple times in the face and head as he sat on her, leaving her with an eye injury.
The witness went on to describe alleged violent encounters in 2014 – a sexual assault and assault, on separate occasions – and an assault and threat in 2016.
During one alleged incident, she testified the man bit her thumb, sending her to the hospital with "severe blood poisoning."
In cross-examining the woman, the accused's lawyer Charles Davison presented her with a starkly different version of events, suggesting the source of their tumultuous relationship was her excessive drinking, not abuse at the hands of his client.
The woman testified she'd entered an addictions program in Edmonton after suffering an accidental injury while intoxicated and that she drank during most of the encounters where she alleges wrongdoing occurred.
The defence suggested the woman's injuries were sustained as the result of separate, unrelated incidents.
Focusing on one incident, Davison asked the witness whether it was possible she had more to drink than she had testified.
She replied she doesn't remember "small details," only what it feels like to be pushed and beaten.
The man's lawyer ultimately suggested the allegations had been triggered by rumours his client was cheating on the woman and that she expected to have sex – perhaps not as quickly as it happened – when she went over to the accused's apartment during the first encounter she described.
The woman acknowledged hearing stories about infidelity – stories she said were the "final straw," in leading her to report the allegations to police in 2016.
"It wasn't consensual," she maintained. "Everything I say is what happened."
Judge Shannon Smallwood and the 10 person jury heard from a doctor – expected to be the final witness – who took the stand Tuesday.
The trial is set to continue this morning.