The former Calgary bus driver accused of sex-related charges with a minor told court Thursday it was the teenage girl who made unwanted sexual advances toward him, contradicting her testimony that he was the one in pursuit of a relationship.
Paul Rene Desmarais, 63, is charged with sexual assault, sexual interference with a child under 16, and sexual contact with a youth by a person in authority.
The complainant, now 24, was a teenage girl at the time of the alleged incidents and her identity is protected by a publication ban. She told the court her interactions with Desmarais started out with friendly chit-chat, but transformed into a relationship which culminated with a sexual encounter in the garage at his family home.
On direct examination by his attorney Joan Blumer, Desmarais told court the girl made increasingly sexual advances toward him. He says at times he’d dismiss it as her being fantastical, and other times he’d admonish her for being inappropriate. In one circumstance, Desmarais said the girl told him she had fantasized about performing fellatio on him while he was driving the bus.
“I said ‘if you’re going to talk that way on my bus … you will not be able to ride,” he said.
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Desmarais said he felt the girl was lonely, quirky and sad, and that there was something “off” about her.
On cross-examination, crown prosecutor Pam McCluskey prodded Desmarais on why he never reported his interactions with the complainant to a superior.
“You’re not suspicious enough to report this to a supervisor,” asked McCluskey.
“I rarely reported anything,” said Desmarais. “I always handled my own situations.”
Desmarais testified that in September 2009, the girl boarded his bus and proceeded to tell him that because she was now of age, she would get a hotel room for the two of them.
“I said ‘sorry, I’m a married man. I’m not interested,'” Desmarais told the court. He said she told him, “I can make you do this.”
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Under cross-examination Wednesday, the alleged victim disagreed with Blumer’s assertion that the hotel room conversation ever happened.
“You said, ‘this is going to happen, this will happen, I get what I want, you will find out (what happens) when I don’t get what I want,'” Blumer posed to the woman.
“I’m not a vindictive person,” said the woman. “That’s not how I treat people or talk to them.”
After the motel room conversation, Desmarais testified he was involved in a motor vehicle accident with the bus, crashing into a motorcycle.
“I couldn’t drive,” Desmarais said “I told (Calgary Transit) I’m having a nervous breakdown, so they gave me a week off to relieve my stress.”
“How can I get rid of this, quit this, without making her mad?”
Desmarais testified the final time the alleged victim rode his bus, he said she was insistent on wanting to have sex.
“We’re going to do this, we’re going to have sex,” he said she told him.
“I said ‘if you ever get on my bus again, I will push this red button (referring to a button on the bus dashboard which engaged a camera) and it will record every word you say.'”
As McCluskey wrapped her cross-examination, she asked Desmarais if he saw himself as a victim.
“Yes, I do, because I’ve lost everything. I’ve lost family, I’ve lost friends, I’ve lost everything,” he said.
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Testimony ended on Thursday. The case is fast approaching the 30-month window in which criminal matters need to be completed as outlined in the Supreme Court of Canada’s Jordan decision. Desmarais’ defence counsel Joan Blumer told the court her client was willing to waive the right to have the matter completed in that timeline provided the case is concluded by October 2017.
The crown and defence will now take the next month to prepare written submissions. Both sides will return to court in August to set a date to make oral final submissions.
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