Sex assault trial opens for former Dalhousie student Charles Barrons
A former Dalhousie University student is on trial this week for charges including the alleged sexual assault of a former girlfriend.
Charles Edward John Barrons also faces charges of assault, breaking and entering and uttering threats.
The woman who accuses Barrons was the first person to testify at his trial on Wednesday. Her identity is protected by a publication ban.
An uncomfortable look
She said on the night of Sept. 11, 2014, she and friends were in the downtown Halifax bar Cheers when she noticed Barrons across the room. The two had previously been in a relationship.
She testified in Nova Scotia Supreme Court that the way he was looking at her that night made her uncomfortable, so she and the man she'd been talking to left the bar and walked back to her apartment in south-end Halifax.
The woman said she and the man were in her apartment for a short time when they heard a noise outside the apartment door.
Breaking down the door
After looking through the peephole, she said they saw Barrons in the hall outside. They tried to ignore him, but she said he kept pounding on the door until he splintered it and burst into the room.
She said she and the man tried to take refuge in her bedroom, but she said Barrons forced his way in.
Barrons shoved her out of the way and grappled with her companion, she said. The woman said he then attacked her on the bed, hitting her and shoving his hands into her underwear and penetrating her.
The woman's companion would later testify that Barrons threatened to kill him while they fought. He got away and went to call for help, ending up in the hallway wearing little or nothing.
Woman accused of inventing story
One of Barrons' defence lawyers, Jennifer Penman of Toronto, accused the woman of inventing her story.
Penman got the woman to admit on cross-examination that she had lied to Barrons in the past to manipulate him.
But when Penman suggested the woman was lying in this case, she replied, "I made up things before to him. I'm under oath here today and I am not lying about this."
The woman also testified about Facebook messages she said she received from Barrons that night. She said one of the messages called her a "whore" for being with another man.
Threatening gestures
The second person to testify was the man who was with the complainant that night.
He told court that when he and the woman were at Cheers, Barrons made threatening gestures from across the bar, including making a slashing motion across his own throat.
The man testified Barrons also came around the bar and groped the woman before they left to walk back to her apartment.
Defence attacks discrepancies
The defence, which also includes Halifax lawyer Stan MacDonald, attacked discrepancies in the testimony Wednesday by the woman and her companion from what they said when they testified at the preliminary inquiry last year.
