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Allegations of sexual assaults against children denied by mother and accused

Mar 2, 2021 | 1:21 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – *** WARNING: This story contains graphic sexual details ***

The 12-member jury has now heard all evidence in a trial where a 44-year-old man is accused of sexually assaulting his girlfriend’s two daughters.

He faces three counts each of sexual assault and sexual exploitation due to a series of alleged incidents in Lethbridge in the summer and fall of 2018.

Sexual exploitation involves the unlawful touching of a person’s body when the victim is under the age of 16 and the perpetrator is in a position of trust or authority over them.

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

The man took to the stand Tuesday to deny all allegations levied against him by the then-12 and 14-year-old girls.

The first alleged matter took place in August 2018 when the mother, the accused, the 12-year-old, and a friend of the accused went floating on the Oldman River for about six hours. The girl was badly sunburnt.

Due to the mother having a severe case of arthritis in her hands, she was unable to apply aloe vera lotion herself, so, for the first two days, the man applied it to the girl’s back and upper chest while the mother was home.

What happened on the third day is where the testimonies of the girl and the adults differ.

The girl told court Monday that, while her mother was at work, the accused told her that they needed to talk about something. She alleged that he did not attempt to apply lotion, but instead, pulled her shirt and bra down and grabbed both of her breasts.

READ MORE: Underaged sisters testify at sexual assault trial in Lethbridge

The man, however, explained that he was applying lotion and only had to move the bra strap a little bit in order to ensure it covered the entire sunburnt area. In his version of events, the child was uncomfortable with having him move her bra strap.

He said that he never grabbed her breasts nor attempted to.

A few hours after the alleged incident when the mother came home from work, the mom took her daughter to the McDonald’s parking lot so they could talk. The daughter informed her mom that she needed to talk to her about something important.

The girl said in court that she told her mother that the man had grabbed her breasts, but in the mother’s testimony, she was only told that the girl felt uncomfortable because her bra strap was moved.

It was about one month later that the first of two alleged incidents with the 14-year-old occurred.

The older sister’s room was in the basement of her mom’s house.

The girl had testified that the man would insist on tucking the girls into bed at night despite their insistence that they were too old for that. The man agreed in his testimony that the girls were too old to be tucked in and said he never did it for that reason.

The allegation is that the man had laid with the 14-year-old in her bed, placing his hand on her naked breast. This was denied full stop by the accused.

The second alleged incident involving the older sister was in November of 2018.

At this point, the girl no longer lived full-time with her mother but came by to catch up.

The girl joined the adults to play cards in the garage. It was alleged that, while sitting at a table, the man placed his hand on her leg and moved it up to her thigh.

Not only did the accused deny this happening, but declared that the girl had never come by the house between July 2018 and Christmas that year. What he recalled is playing cards in the garage with them in July.

The mother recalled the three of them being in the garage together in November but did not notice anything out of the ordinary happening. She admitted to having a few drinks at this point and being distracted by games on her phone.

She insisted that if she believed the man was doing anything wrong with her daughters, she would have immediately phoned the police and likely would have hit him.

It was brought to the court’s attention that the man has a court order prohibiting him from having contact with any persons under the age of 16 without the supervision of a court-approved supervisor.

He had been convicted of assault on two different occasions in 2009 and 2011 and had breached his conditions.

The mother explained that she was aware of his past and the court order before he moved in with her, but was OK with it because they loved each other and that both she and the children liked him. The girls, however, said the previous day that they were not as warm to him as their mother was.

Shortly after they began dating, the mother spoke to a representative of Children’s Services about the accused’s criminal record and the implications it could have.

The mother said that she was never informed that a supervisor had to be approved by the courts and that she thought, as their mother, she would be an adequate supervisor for her children.

She also told the representative that the man would likely not be alone with the children anyway so it did not matter. At the same time, she acknowledged that, because the man worked in construction, there would be periods in the winter and between projects where he would be at home by himself for extended lengths of time.

Following the mother’s remarks, the representative with Children’s Services took to the stand to explain her interactions with the mother and her concerns about the accused being around the children.

The representative said, due to the court order placed on the accused, he was not under any circumstances, allowed to be around her children without a court-approved supervisor. Her department provided a letter shortly afterwards going over the details in length.

It was also stated by the representative that she does not have the authority to appoint anyone to be a supervisor but would not recommend that the mother or grandmother be a supervisor due to the potential that they could minimize the events of anything negative that might happen.

The representative told the mother that if the man was found to be alone with the children, they would have to launch an investigation to determine whether she would be able to care of them.

Following the testimonies in court Tuesday, closing arguments are expected to be made Wednesday. It is possible that the jury might reach a verdict Wednesday.

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

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