Court Rothesay man collapses minutes after verdict delivered

C8

MIKE MULLEN
TELEGRAPH-JOURNAL

Stumble Upon

del.icio.us

Digg

Facebook

Print

Email

5 Comment(s)

SAINT JOHN - It was a classic case of he said, she said.

Enlarge Photo

Kâté LeBlanc/Telegraph-Journal

Raymond Cyr, shown earlier this week, will be sentenced in the Court of Queen’s Bench in Saint John on Jan. 16.

He had steadfastly maintained the sex they had was consensual in nature, that he hadn't done anything wrong.

She had testified the sex wasn't consensual, that she had repeatedly told him "no" and to "stop" and while crying, had tried in her drunken state to push him off her.

And Thursday night, following eight hours of deliberation, a six-man, six-woman Court of Queen's Bench jury returned a verdict of guilty of sexual assault against Raymond Joseph Cyr, 19, of Rothesay, who had been charged with sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl in the upstairs bedroom of a house in Rothesay last April 11, where the inebriated victim had gone to sleep it off.

As dramatic as the verdict was for members of both families, who had been warned by Justice Hugh McLellan to "maintain absolute silence" and not show of emotion when it was read, there was even more drama to come as the ashen-faced Cyr fainted in the prisoner's box, crashing to the floor, as he was being remanded to jail until sentencing.

Members of both families were seen crying as sheriff's deputies cleared the courtroom and assisted Cyr, who recovered quickly, get back on his feet.

Cyr's collapse came just moments after McLellan set his sentencing over until 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 16, at the Provincial Building on Charlotte Street. That allows time for the preparation of a pre-sentence report and victim impact statements.

The four-day trial essentially came down to what constituted sexual assault in the law, as outlined by McLellan in his charge, and the credibility of the mostly teenaged Crown witnesses who were characterized by defence lawyer David Kelly, in his closing argument Thursday morning, as "kids" who can only be counted on to tell the truth when it is convenient.

The jury, which began its deliberations at 12:03 p.m., returned to the courtroom in less than two hours with three requests, which were fulfilled. McLellan again explained the complexities of what does and what doesn't constitute sexual assault under the law and allowed jurors, as requested, to hear the audiotape of the victim's testimony on Monday and that of a 17-year-old who testified Tuesday that Cyr was naked and "on top of the young woman, having sex" when she walked in the bedroom. She said the victim was trying to push him off.

The victim had testified she woke up to find Cyr having intercourse with her. She told him to get away, but she said he then attempted to force her to have oral sex with him, but she did not participate. He then had intercourse with her while she kept crying and saying no.

In her closing argument, Crown prosecutor Kelly Winchester acknowledged the onus was on the Crown to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Cyr was guilty as charged, and she believed it had done so.

Referring to an videotaped statement Cry had voluntarily given Rothesay police about a week after the sexual assault, she noted he said the victim had offered no negative response to him.

"I would suggest to you no is a negative response and pushing away is a negative response," she told the jury.

Further suggesting that Cyr "seized the opportunity" to have sex with a drunken 16-year-old, the prosecutor added, "No still means no. I respectfully submit she said no and he wasn't listening."

Both Winchester and Kelly agreed the case came down to the credibility of the witnesses, but Kelly had a very different take on what happened.

Not only did he refer to most of the Crown's witnesses as kids who only tell the truth when it is convenient "to stay out trouble with their parents or the police," but he wondered aloud - as he had during her testimony Monday - why the victim didn't scream out or yell for help when she was in a house where 25 or 30 people were partying.

Kelly also questioned the lack of medical and forensic evidence, including a rape kit chart that should have been obtained from the doctor that the victim said she went to the following week to ensure she had not contracted any sexual diseases.

Even more troubling, the defence counsel said, was the lack of any physical bruises on either the accused or the young woman.

He suggested if she truly had been trying to push Cry away, there would have been bruising of some kind.

In his charge to the jury, McLellan told the jurors "not to be blinded by some smears and innuendoes in this case," directed at Cyr and the victim.