WARNING: This article contains details heard in court that may not be suitable for some readers.
A sexual assault case stemming from an incident in Wasaga Beach almost six years ago is set to conclude next month.
Reese Shephard, 24, faces a single count of sexual assault that is alleged to have occurred at a house party that took place on the Victoria Day long weekend in 2019.
The trial, before Superior Court Madam Justice Vanessa Christie, heard closing submissions Tuesday in a Barrie courtroom.
Christie reserved her decision for April 1.
The alleged victim, who was 17 at the time of the incident, cannot be identified per law that protects the identity of complainants in sexual-assault proceedings.
The woman, who is now 23, did not attend in-person, providing her testimony in December by video link elsewhere in the courthouse.
The Crown alleges that Shephard essentially pretended to be someone else – a man whom the girl had been with that evening, but who had already left the party – as a ruse to have sex with the alleged victim.
Shephard’s defence, told over two days on the stand that included a withering cross-examination by the Crown, is that the sex was spontaneous but consensual.
“It doesn’t make sense,” said Crown attorney Dennis Chronopoulos, referring generally to Shephard’s explanation of how he happened upon the alleged victim in a spare bedroom and engaged in consensual sex soon after.
“He had to embellish (his story) … he’s gotta say that because he has to have evidence that she consented, when her evidence was that she (did not),” he added.
Shephard’s defence lawyer, Richard Allman, speaking before Chronopoulos, offered a 10-pont submission to explain his client’s account of what happened that night, taking the opposite position.
“It doesn’t make any sense without her consent,” said Allman, making specific reference to how the alleged victim removed her own clothes and how she recognized physical differences between her original paramour and Shephard.
“She was aware and was an active participant,” he added.
The case touched on and heard testimony about many aspects that those in the bayside resort community are familiar with, especially as spring turns to summer — out-of-town visitors mingling with locals and the laid-back way of life that takes hold for four months every year.
It also served as a cautionary tale about how, despite reasonable precautions to supervise young people and allow them a safe space to socialize, the potential dangers when teenagers and alcohol mix in such a setting.
The host of the party was a friend of both the accused and alleged victim. She had invited her old friends from Orangeville to a party that was attended by mostly people from her new home in Wasaga Beach.
That girl’s mother testified to the extent she went to supervise the party – strict rules about sleeping arrangements for out-of-towners, providing a ride home for local guests who didn’t have one – to ensure everyone’s safety.
If the Crown’s case is proven, it’s also proof that it wasn’t enough.
The case was also a sad commentary at the glacial pace of the courts. There were numerous delays: the original Crown, Fred Temple, died in a house fire, pandemic restrictions and voluminous pre-trial motions and arguments stretched it well past five years.
Once the trial started in December, what was supposed to be a relatively quick trial of about a week eventually took more than twice that time, forcing court staff to scramble for extra days in January, then March and now April as the proceedings became bogged down in procedural matters and other legal minutiae.
There was one final delay: Tuesday’s proceedings extended almost an hour past the normal time for closing court before a suitable date for Christie’s judgment could be agreed upon.
In the end, Christie, who demonstrated patience throughout, will shoe-horn her decision in during a short break from a trial she is presiding over in Newmarket on April Fool’s Day.
By the time that date arrives, both the accused and alleged victim will have spent a quarter of their lives with the case hanging over them.
