Woman details sex abuse allegations

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following story contains court testimony that may be disturbing to readers.

A woman described three specific incidents Monday where she "clearly" remembers being sexually abused nearly 40 years years ago.

These are her "most vivid" memories, she told Superior Court Justice Edward Gareau at the trial of a Marathon, Ont. man taking place at the Sault Ste. Marie courthouse.

The complainant also said she recalls other incidents that involve inappropriate touching, but these involve "pieces" of memories that "are all blended."

"I can't remember details of them," she explained to assistant Crown attorney Robert Skeggs. "The whole story is not complete for me."

Bonaventure Sabourin, 56, has pleaded not guilty to indecent assault in connection with the incidents that are alleged to have occurred in White River in the early 1980s.

During that time he was 18 to 20 years of age, and the complainant was a pre-teen.

A publication ban prohibits reporting any information that could identify the complainant.

The woman testified the first time it happened was when they were playing a game of hide and seek in a darkened room.

They were hiding in a closet and "I just remember being touched by him," she said.

"I remember him touching me and I remember touching him. It was over clothing."

Sabourin touched her vaginal area, fondled her breasts, kissed her and put her hand on his penis, the witness said.

"I remember pulling my hand away and he would put it back. I wasn't frantically trying to get away."

The complainant said "it kind of scared me, but it was never aggressive," adding "I remember wanting to be like everyone else who was playing hide and seek in pairs."

She told the court she recalls similar incidents in the closet where the accused touched her under her clothing. 

Gareau heard her next "biggest memory" involves a night when she was at a sleepover at Sabourin's family's home.

The woman said he snuck into the bedroom where she was sleeping with his sister, and crawled into their bed.

Sabourin fondled and touched her, then got on top of her and tried to have sex with her, but "it didn't happen," she said.

"I don't recall specifically when it occurred. I just remember being stiff, frozen," she told Skeggs. "It was like I was watching myself from the side of the room."

The third incident occurred at a later time, where she recalls smoking a joint with Sabourin in a sunroom that was used as a bedroom.

"I remember him touching me and having some conflicted thoughts."

The accused tried to make "me give him oral sex," she said. "I couldn't do it. I gagged. I thought I was going to throw up."

She described this as the last occurrence she remembers, indicating her family moved away from the town a few months later.

During cross-examination, defence lawyer Bruce Willson pushed her for more details on the three incidents, in particular on what occurred the time she said his client tried to have sex with her.

"I don't specifically know how he got under the blankets. He was touching me, kissing me," she said.

"I was beginning to recognize this was not right. I felt dirty," she told Willson. "I recall being stiff, feeling panicked, scared, frozen."

She later went on to explain that she meant she was frozen in an emotional sense, not physically.

Willson then suggested there wasn't a lot of room for her to open her legs in the bed, and maintained this incident didn't occur.

"Everything I said, sir, happened," she replied.

Referring to the alleged sunroom incident, the defence questioned why she didn't get up and leave when Sabourin started to touch her.

She agreed she could have done that.

"I was part of the whole dysfunction of sexual abuse," the woman said, adding she didn't realize this when she was young.

"When I look back I wished I would have got up and told from the beginning."

Willson was to continue his cross-examination Tuesday afternoon.

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