Crown grills Toronto councillor over alleged sexual assault at Muskoka cottage

CBC

5 days ago

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WARNING: This article contains graphic descriptions of an alleged sexual assault.
During cross-examination in his sexual assault trial Thursday, Toronto councillor Michael Thompson was grilled by a Crown attorney who suggested he'd forced himself on a woman in 2022, despite his previous testimony the encounter was consensual.
The former deputy mayor is facing two charges of sexual assault for alleged incidents involving two women at a Muskoka cottage over the Canada Day weekend in 2022. Their identities are protected by a court-ordered publication ban.
One woman has alleged Thompson touched her inappropriately while applying sunscreen, which Thompson denied in court earlier this month, while the second woman has alleged he forced himself on her in the middle of the night.
Thompson has pleaded not guilty to both charges in the judge-alone trial, which continued in Barrie Thursday.
Thompson first took to the witness box earlier this month, where he testified that a sexual encounter had happened with the second woman, but she had initiated it and it was consensual, a claim he maintained Thursday.
WATCH | Coun. Thompson takes stand for first time to testify in trial:
Toronto city councillor Michael Thompson takes the stand in his sexual assault trial
23 days ago
Duration 2:30
He said the complainant had spent much of that day touching him and flirting with him, and at one point suggested they get together when the other two women at the cottage that weekend — the other complainant and a witness in the trial — went to bed.
Thompson said Thursday he went to bed early, but was woken by the second complainant around 3 a.m. He alleged she was fully naked and asked him to have a drink in the kitchen.
He said he followed her out and sipped tequila with her before following her down to a basement room where she performed oral sex on him.
Crown suggests things went differently
On Thursday Crown attorney Mareike Newhouse pushed back against Thompson's testimony, putting the prosecution's theory of events to him directly.
"I'm going to suggest to you that what actually happened in the early hours of the morning is entirely different than what you've described," Newhouse said, suggesting he was already awake, not awoken by the complainant.
"I'm going to suggest that you actually went looking for the women in the middle of the night," Newhouse said.
"No," Thompson replied.
"I'm going to suggest that the woman you found was [the second complainant]," she said.
"No," he responded.
"I'm going to suggest you took her to the basement."
"No."
"By the time you got to her room you were all over her physically and she told you no."
"No, that was never said."
"I'm going to suggest it was said multiple times by her to you."
"Absolutely not, that was never done."
Newhouse completed the Crown's cross-examination of Thompson Thursday. The trial is set to resume with Thompson's re-examination by his lawyer on June 23.
Woman's previous testimony contradicts Thompson
Newhouse's suggestions aligned with what the court had previously heard from the complainant.
Earlier this year, the woman testified that Thompson allegedly forced himself on her after a day of heavy drinking.
The complainant said that Thompson woke her up in the middle of the night and took her to a downstairs bedroom. Once there, she said, he was "definitely trying to engage in something sexual," while standing close to her and touching her.
The complainant said she told Thompson, "I don't want this." She said she laid down on a bed, still feeling the effects of alcohol from earlier in the day, at which point Thompson put his penis around her face and mouth and later ejaculated on her face and chest.
She told the courtroom repeatedly she had not wanted sexual contact with Thompson, but felt she couldn't do anything. "I felt trapped," she said at the time.
Thompson said Thursday that the woman put his penis in her mouth herself, and she appeared sober.
Both complainants, and a third woman who was at the cottage that weekend and is a witness in the trial, have previously testified Thompson plied them with alcohol over the weekend, and the second complainant was very drunk when Thompson allegedly forced himself on her.
The witness's identity is also protected by a publication ban.