Man accused of sexual assaults pleads not guilty

A Steinbach man pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting his ex, while the court viewed two videos showing the pair the night of the alleged assault on Aug. 8 before Judge Robert Heinrichs.

The accused is facing two counts of sexual charges from July 29, 2024.

He was in a year-long relationship with the 23-year-old victim, who cannot be named due to a publication ban.

“This is not quite the typical sexual assault allegations because we have part of it captured on video,” said Crown attorney Jennifer Neufeld.

In the first video, the woman who is slurring her words appeared to be in bed with and touching him, court heard.

Court heard in the second video, which is almost three minutes long, shows the accused asking her “Who’s daddy’s girl?” and “Are we making a porno?” to which the woman responds with “Yeah.” Towards the end of the video, the accused is rubbing her through her underwear and the victim said, “I’m done, I’m begging you” and the video ends.

The accused was also telling her to take “one more sip” of the alcohol multiple times, court heard.

The complainant testified she had lots of alcohol that night and has little memory of it.

“I was in love with him,” said the complainant.

“A drunken consent is still valid consent,” said defence lawyer Candace Olson.

“This an absolutely terrible recording of a recording. There’s glare, there’s sounds in the background. It’s hard to make it. It’s essentially impossible to see if there were any alterations made,” said Olson.

The police officer recorded the videos with his phone and it was submitted as evidence.

A decision has not been made.