EDITOR'S NOTE: The following story contains court testimony that may be disturbing to readers
The complainant at a Sault Ste. Marie man's trial on sex-related charges detailed to the court Thursday the abuse she says she suffered at his hands on a winter night more than two years ago.
She took the witness stand on the second day of Ernest McKinnon's trial on five charges.
He has pleaded not guilty to counts of sexual assault, forcible confinement, voyeurism (for surreptitiously making recordings), assault and sexual assault with a weapon.
The offences are alleged to have occurred in 2016.
The woman, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, told Superior Court Justice Edward Gareau that the pair were having consensual sex when he grabbed something from a bag and wrapped it around her left arm.
"It felt elastic and he attached my arm to the headboard," she explained to prosecutor David Kirk, adding she thought he "was just being silly" and "I actually giggled."
She said she still wasn't afraid when he attached her right hand to the bed.
But when her left hand slipped out of the constraint, the woman said she didn't think he noticed, and she put her hand back in, because she didn't want to ruin the mood and she thought he was just playing.
McKinnon then took her left hand, "wrapped it very tightly" to the headboard, and when she asked what he was doing, he tightened her right wrist.
The woman said at this point she began struggling and was afraid, upset, and feeling trapped.
She testified that when she asked McKinnon what he was doing, he never said anything and she started to get nervous.
The accused then forcefully sexually assaulted her anally, and she began to scream, telling him "stop, stop that hurts," she said.
"The pain was excruciating, I was struggling and he didn't stop."
She told the assistant Crown attorney that McKinnon then asked — the only time he spoke — "Have you ever been raped before? Did he sodomize you?"
During her emotional testimony, the complainant said she didn't recognize the voice, which sounded ominous and so calm, that she was in shock, frightened and in so much pain.
"I'd never experienced any violence like this," she testified, adding that she just went limp and "my mind went to some place else. "
The woman said he then tied her ankles to the headboard, sexually assaulted her with an object, and began taking photographs with his phone.
"I'm totally not there. My body has just gone numb," she said. "It's all jumbled together."
There were several times he took pictures, and more sexual touching, she stated, adding "it's all still such a blur."
She said she then felt a sharp pain on the back of her thigh. "I thought he was cutting me."
McKinnon was using a pen and a needle "over and over again," the complainant testified. "He was tattooing me. He put his initials on me."
The woman said he untied her after taking more pictures, then left the room and went outside.
"I thought it's over and started to shake, so badly the bed was shaking," the witness told the court.
When she was able to calm down, she said she grabbed some clothes, ran out of the residence and sought help from a woman she knew lived nearby.
"I told her I'd been raped."
Police were contacted and she was taken to the hospital.
Gareau heard she had no further contact with McKinnon until a night in October 2017, when she "was stunned" to see him in her backyard as she was having a cigarette on the porch.
The woman said when she asked what he wanted, the accused replied he "was sorry about what had happened, he didn't mean to hurt me, he didn't know what had happened and things had gone too far."
He then asked if she had got the roses, referring to an artificial flower she said she had found by her car the day before.
McKinnon returned the next night with an orchid and a chocolate bar.
She said this time he suggested she drop the matter, telling her the Crown didn't want the case and It has no merit.
"I didn't know how to stop him from coming. I didn't want to call the police because I was afraid he'd get a slap on the wrist and I'd be more vulnerable."
When he returned on the third night, he again told her she could make this go away and suggested she could refuse to testify.
The following night when he came back, she said she stayed inside with the lights off until he left.
During the first time she spoke with him he was very remorseful and nice, but on the following nights he was "real forceful about dropping the charges," the woman said.
The court also viewed text messages from McKinnon, including one in October where he indicated he could give her some money.
"I don't know why he was offering me money. I'd told him what I had been through the last two years and was facing bankruptcy," she told Kirk. "I guess he was offering money because he knew I needed it."
The complainant said she was uncomfortable with the visits and texts, and told McKinnon that he had to stop, indicating she couldn't accept any money from him because it would look like a payoff.
EDITOR'S NOTE: SooToday does not permit comments on court stories
