Sex assault victim says she had to speak out

A woman who was sexually assaulted on campus at Brandon University said she has become a powerful voice for victims who are afraid to speak out as she directly addressed her rapist before he was sentenced to three years in prison.

“Staying silent meant people like you would continue to get away with preying on victims, thinking there were no consequences, and I couldn’t let that happen — not just for myself, but for all people whose voices could not, have not, or will not be heard,” the 28-year-old woman said in Brandon’s Court of King’s Bench on Monday afternoon.

The Indigenous woman from Thompson sobbed as she recalled feeling scared and shattered in the hours following the sexual assault in the men’s dormitory on Sept. 24, 2017, including the mental health challenges she continues to face.

“I don’t forgive you. I will, however, thank you for showing me that I’m stronger than I ever thought I could be, and that I don’t have to feel guilty for tolerating anything I’m not OK with,” she said as her hands shook.

A publication ban protecting victims of sexual violence prohibits the Sun from identifying the woman and the 31-year-old man, who pleaded not guilty to the sexual assault charge during a November 2025 trial.

The woman said she sought counselling to help process the trauma and waited five years before she felt ready to report the incident to the Brandon Police Service.

“If I have to suffer for the rest of my life, so should he,” she said.

“He deserves to have this follow him and haunt him for life.”

The woman said she considered the accused “a friend” and had known him in her northern community before they both moved to Brandon to pursue post-secondary education.

During the trial, the woman testified the accused asked her to hang out in his dorm room and then tried kissing her and initiating sex, but she declined multiple times.

Eventually she agreed to have sex, “just to shut him up,” requesting that he must wear a condom. She testified she was experiencing pain from having her head pushed into the mattress and asked him to stop, but he didn’t.

She said she froze when she realized he didn’t care how she felt. When he finished, she noticed a condom was lying on the floor.

The accused denied having sexual intercourse without a condom and instead testified that the rim of the condom tore, so he started performing oral sex on the woman while he put on a new one and threw the used condom on the floor.

Court heard the woman confronted the man less than two months later about why he removed the condom and alleged he told her he “didn’t want to ruin the mood.” The accused denied saying this in his testimony.

Justice Elliot Leven convicted the man of sexual assault in April, saying that by silently switching from vaginal intercourse to oral sex without “fresh communicated consent,” he violated the woman.

Three of the victim’s university friends, and her mother, wrote statements that were read aloud in court, describing a change in the woman’s demeanor in the months after the assault.

One friend spoke about how the victim began isolating herself from others and looking “petrified” as she peeked around corners, hoping she wouldn’t run into the accused on campus.

Her mother wept as she recalled the moment her daughter confided in her about what had happened when she returned home during reading week.

“I never once thought she was lying, but being raised old school, I felt the need to ask the questions that had been ingrained into me,” she said.

Asking victim-blaming questions such as “What were you wearing?” or “Did you lead him on?” broke the closeness she had with her daughter and made her reflect on normalized, yet harmful perceptions toward victims, the mother said.

“I would love nothing more than this mentality to change in our society,” she said.

Unfortunately, sexual assault cases are often a “he-said, she-said situation” and it’s challenging for the Crown to prove the crime happened beyond a reasonable doubt, which is why many victims choose not to report, the mother said.

She turned to her daughter and said, “I hope that you standing up for yourself gives anyone else in this situation … the strength to do the same.”

The woman said she will always experience victim-blaming about what happened that night.

“We are always encouraged to expose abusers’ toxic behaviours, but as soon as they’re called out, the narrative quickly changes because the abuser is a family member, a friend, a partner, and so on,” she said.

“I’m someone’s daughter, and I did not deserve what someone’s son put me through.”

Crown attorney Sarah Kok said the accused didn’t express remorse or offer an apology in his pre-sentence report. She recommended the court impose a three-and-a-half-year sentence, arguing against the defence’s suggestion of a conditional sentence order (CSO).

“The Crown argues that the CSO would not achieve (the) sentencing objectives as required, nor would it assure the protection of the public and their safety,” Kok said.

“This is, of course, in spite of any related criminal record or any allegations of non-compliance or breaching since charges were laid and since the trial occurred.”

Defence lawyer Bob Harrison shared letters of support from friends and co-workers of the accused — two of whom he had sexual relations with. One the friends referred to him as a “respectful, kind and considerate” individual, while another wrote they don’t believe he poses a threat to women.

He said his client, who is Métis, suffers from five compression fractures in his spine and is concerned about what may happen to him in jail.

“This man is not a monster at all,” Harrison said.

He argued a conditional sentence and being registered as a sex offender for 10 years instead of 20 would meet the principles of deterrence and denunciation.

Leven said he weighed the gravity of the offence, the systemic and background factors of the victim and the accused, and other aspects, including the youthfulness of the offender at the time of the assault and the absence of a guilty plea into his decision.

He imposed a three-year sentence minus nine days of time served and ordered the accused to register as a sex offender for 20 years, submit a DNA sample and follow a 10-year weapons prohibition.

As the court sheriffs led the accused out of the room, the woman stood watching next to her friends and mother as tears welled in her eyes and her lip trembled.

» tadamski@brandonsun.com