A Halifax sexual assault trial heard testimony Thursday from three women who learned about the alleged rape from the complainant before she reported it to police.
Matthew Albert Percy, 35, is on trial in Halifax provincial court on charges of sexual assault, choking to overcome resistance and voyeurism, for allegedly recording video clips of the encounter with his cellphone.
The offences were allegedly committed in the early morning hours of Sept. 3, 2017, after Percy and a woman took a cab back to his Halifax apartment after having drinks together downtown.
Thursday was the third day of the trial, which got underway Monday.
The complainant, a 22-year-old Saint Mary’s University student whose identity is protected by a publication ban, testified Tuesday.
The woman said she told Percy several times at his apartment that she did not want to have sex with him, but he put his hands around her neck and refused to take no for an answer.
She also said she didn’t know Percy was recording the incident with his cellphone and said she would not have consented to that.
One of Thursday’s witnesses said the complainant asked her to drop by her apartment after work the next day.
“It was an interesting evening,” the complainant said in a Sept. 4 text to her friend. “Come over to see me.”
The witness said her friend usually greets her at the door with a big hug but didn’t come to the door that day. She found her folding clothes in her bedroom.
She said the complainant, who’s usually loud and bouncy, was quieter than normal and would not make eye contact with her as she told her what had happened with Percy.
When the complainant began to cry, her friend said she asked her if she was OK.
“She turned around and the look on her face was like nothing I’d seen before,” she said. “I wrapped my arms around her and she started bawling.”
The witness said the complainant is “the strongest human being I know.”
“Seeing her cry, I instantly knew ‘this is bad,’” she told the court.
She said the complainant went out of her way after that to avoid Percy on the SMU campus, where he was employed as a groundskeeper and worked out at the gym.
A young woman who went downtown with the alleged victim on the night of Sept. 2 said her friend thought Percy was attractive and was looking forward to meeting up with him at Durty Nelly’s but “definitely” did not plan to go home with him.
“She just wanted to get to know him better and hang out with him,” she said.
The woman said her friend is not used to drinking alcohol. She said the complainant, in a conversation at the Dome later that night, said she was “wasted” and was not feeling well but did not show any physical signs of intoxication.
She said her friend was “very, very avoidant” in text messages Sept. 3 after she asked how her evening had gone.
“She was withholding information about what happened to her that night,” she said.
She said the complainant finally opened up to her about the alleged sexual assault when they met for coffee one morning in early November.
“She was looking around the coffee shop,” she said of her friend. “She was very quiet. The words could barely come out of her mouth.”
Later that month, the complainant got an appointment to see a counsellor at SMU.
“She was upset,” counsellor Caroline Bradley testified. “She was clearly struggling to talk about the sexual assault. . . . She’s very eloquent but I could tell it was hard for her to talk about.”
During cross-examination, defence lawyer Brian Warcop zeroed in on a line in the counsellor’s report that said the woman indicated she might have eventually said “fine” to sex.
“But only subsequent to having said ‘no’ multiple times,” Bradley added from the witness box.
“She had been pushed to that point.”
The complainant contacted police in early December after seeing a news report that said Percy had been charged with sexually assaulting a student at SMU’s Loyola Residence in September.
Percy was arrested in a woman’s room at SMU after the Sept. 15 incident but was released without charges pending further investigation. Police seized Percy’s phone from the room and he signed a consent form authorizing them to search for a video of the SMU incident.
Police later obtained a warrant to search the entire contents of the phone and found two videos of the SMU incident and three dated Sept. 3.
Percy was re-arrested Nov. 29 in connection with the SMU matter and charged with sexual assault and voyeurism. He’s scheduled to stand trial in August on those charges.
He has another trial set for October on a charge of sexual assault causing bodily harm, from an encounter with a woman in Halifax in December 2014.
Det. Const. Sue Mitchell, the lead investigator, also testified Thursday before Crown attorney Rick Woodburn closed his case.
On Friday, lawyers will make submissions on the Crown’s application to have the judge consider evidence from the alleged Sept. 15 sexual assault at this trial.
All five videos from Percy’s phone were played in court this week during a voir dire that was blended into the main trial.
Judge Bill Digby expects to rule next Wednesday on the application to allow similar-fact evidence. The defence will then decide whether it will call any evidence at the trial.
