Underaged sisters testify at sexual assault trial in Lethbridge

To protect the identities of the girls, they, their mother, and the accused cannot be named.

The 12-member jury heard that, at the time of the alleged incidents, the girls were 12 and 14 years old.

The girls had only been aware of the fact that their mom was dating someone for a couple of months before he moved into their home in Lethbridge.

The Younger Sister:

The younger of the two testified that she had gone to the pool two days prior to allegedly being sexually assaulted. She suffered a minor sunburn.

Her mom was unable to apply lotion onto the burn due to arthritis, so the man had put lotion on her back once and there was no incident.

The following day, the 12-year-old was sitting outside of her mom’s house and the accused told her to come inside because he had to talk to her.

She told the jury that, when she went inside to her room a short while later, the man sat down beside her on her bed and used both hands to pull her tank top and bra down, and grabbed both of her breasts. She was clear to state upon cross-examination that he was not intending to put lotion on her again.

The girl pushed him and ran to the bathroom, locking herself inside for four hours until her mom came home from work. Although she had tried to call and text her mother while inside the bathroom, she said that her mom does not answer her phone while at work.

She said the accused told her from the hallway to not tell anyone what happened.

The girl explained what happened later that night to her mother. She stayed with her grandmother that night.

It was not until April 2019 that she reported the matter to police. The girl’s father, who knew only some details of the situation prior, spoke her his daughters and convinced them to speak to police.

Before that, the girl said she was too afraid to tell anyone about what had allegedly happened.

The Older Sister:

The other sister, 14 at the time, testified that she too had been sexually assaulted by their mother’s boyfriend on two separate occasions.

The first reportedly happened about one month after her younger sister was allegedly sexually assaulted.

She lived in the basement of her mom’s house and told court that, despite being too old to be tucked into bed and insisting that she did not need it, the man would regularly tuck her in.

In the summer of 2018, the accused allegedly came down to her room and laid down on the bed beside her.

The girl said he began to cuddle her, putting one arm underneath her neck and one on top of her, repeatedly telling her that he and the mom loved her.

She claims that he then put an arm on top of her breast over the covers and eventually moved his hand underneath the covers, placing it on her naked breast.

When she looked down at his hand, he allegedly withdrew his hand and said sorry. The girl told him that she just wanted to go to sleep now so he left.

After this, she primarily resided at her father’s house but came back in November to catch up with her mom.

The mother and the accused were drinking and playing cards in the garage. She sat down with them.

The girl described him getting more and more drunk, swaying from side to side.

He then allegedly started playing footsies with her and placed his hand on her calf, moving his hand farther up her leg until it was between her knee and hips.

The girl got up and left, saying she was walking to a friend’s house nearby.

She said the reason she did not speak up sooner was because her mom did not react well to hearing about the alleged incident from the younger sister and did not think she would believe her.

Reportedly, the mom blamed herself and told the younger sister not to tell anyone because they would be taken away from her.

The older sister did not want anyone to think she was a liar.

She contacted the police at the same time her sister did.

In both cases, the defense lawyer tried to insinuate that the alleged incidents did not happen, and pointed out some inconsistencies in the girls’ statements in court this week and prior statements made to police.

Court will reconvene Tuesday morning where the mother is expected to take the stand.

Note: This article previously had a different list of charges against the accused.

by David Opinko

Underaged sisters testify at sexual assault trial in Lethbridge

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