Defence questions accuser in trial of alleged serial sex abuser

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The credibility of a lady’s claims she was sexually abused by accused serial intercourse offender Richard Mantha got here beneath contemporary assault Thursday.

On Wednesday, the witness informed Court docket of King’s Bench she went to a northwest Calgary lodge the place she was drugged with a spiked drink and videotaped having non-consensual intercourse for greater than three hours with Mantha someday previous to 2023.

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She additionally testified that she then visited the person’s residence on an acreage east of Calgary twice to higher decide what occurred within the lodge room.

She mentioned a lady who was with Mantha later supplied her with a brief clip of a video she mentioned was of herself being sexually assaulted by the accused, confirming her worst suspicions.

However on Thursday, defence lawyer Andre Ouellette continued his cross-examination of the lady, who can’t be recognized on account of a publication ban, suggesting she wasn’t an harmless sufferer.

He mentioned she went to the acreage to purchase tires for her van, in the end buying one for $20, which the lady denied.

And Ouellette prompt the intercourse between the 2 was consensual.

“You’re indignant not a lot in regards to the intercourse however that it was recorded on an iPad,” he informed court docket.

The girl, who has labored as an escort, agreed and in addition confirmed that she’d accepted the reward of a vibrator from Mantha.

Ouellette cited statements the witness made to police in April 2023 that both weren’t a part of her courtroom testimony or that conflicted with it.

On Wednesday the lady, who’s accompanied in court docket by an emotional assist canine, mentioned she acknowledged a tattoo on her leg within the video.

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“With police, you don’t say something about recognizing a tattoo,” mentioned Ouellette.

Defence calls witnesses’ recollections into query

She’s the third lady to present testimony that they had been sexually assaulted by Mantha, 59.

One lady informed court docket she was drugged, severely crushed and sexually assaulted in his camper in April 2022 and escaped, to be discovered by passersby on a close-by roadside bloodied, muddy and shivering.

One other lady testified she was additionally drugged and filmed having intercourse with Mantha whereas incapacitated in August 2019 in her southeast Calgary duplex.

Defence counsel prompt all three ladies’s recollections of the occasions had been clouded by alcohol and drug use whereas questioning their relationships with the accused.

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Final April, police for days searched a property 20 kilometres east of Calgary the place Mantha rented house for his camper trailers that had been housed inside a Quonset hut.

He has been charged with 20 offences that embody accusations he sexually assaulted seven ladies, drugging six of them — a few of the alleged crimes occurring on the agricultural Rocky View County property.

The accused, who has ties to Quebec, has been in custody since his arrest.

On Thursday, two Calgary law enforcement officials described the focused arrest of Mantha that occurred with out incident throughout a site visitors cease on April 6, 2023 in Chestermere simply east of town.

They mentioned they discovered $1,400 in money in his pockets and a small packet of what they believed to be crystal methamphetamine stashed in an inside jacket pocket.

The non-jury trial overseen by Justice Judith Shrier — that’s being carried out partly in French — was adjourned till subsequent week following quite a few breaks within the proceedings.

“We’ll take a break till Monday so the attorneys can arrange their information,” mentioned Shrier.

The trial is anticipated to final at the very least one other week.

BKaufmann@postmedia.com

X (Twitter): @BillKaufmannjrn

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