The former mayor of an Ontario city has been found guilty on two of the three charges he was facing in a sexual assault trial.
Trevor Birtch, the former mayor of Woodstock, Ont., was found guilty of assault and one count of sexual assault on Thursday afternoon. He was found not guilty of a second sexual assault charge.
Birtch, 49, was charged in February 2022 with two counts of sexual assault, and one count of assault. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The court heard from the woman who was in a relationship with Birtch in 2020 and 2021. Her name has been protected under a publication ban.
While at a spa on Valentine’s Day in 2021, the woman testified that when she refused to perform a sexual act, and said Birtch allegedly pushed and kicked her out of the bed they were sharing.
The judge found Birtch guilty of sexual assault in the Valentine’s Day situation.
Another time, in December 2021, she consented to perform a sexual act, but when she decided she no longer wanted to continue, she alleged Birtch forced her to. He was found not guilty of sexual assault for the December alleged incident.
The assault, she contended, happened in July 2021 while the two were driving through Oxford County. She alleged Birtch pushed her out of his car on after she refused to perform a sexual act.
Birtch was found guilty of assault during the drive through Oxford County.
Birtch denied all the allegations, saying the woman was obsessive, irrational and prone to emotional outbursts. He alleged she often drank heavily and threatened him with violence on multiple occasions.
The trial was held over four days in May; Justice Michael Carnegie suggested multiple times during closing arguments that he would have liked to see more evidence to help make his decision.
No police reports or medical records were presented, and the only other witness to take the stand was Birtch’s 18-year-old son. Carnegie was instead asked by both the Crown and Defence to focus on the inconsistencies in the testimony.
The defence told the judge that the Crown’s case was heavily speculative and that the evidence presented was not enough to convict Birtch beyond a reasonable doubt.
The Crown, meanwhile, said that the three events happened exactly as the woman described and that the only inconsistencies in the evidence are what the defence presented.
On Thursday afternoon, Justice Carnegie returned his verdict: guilty of one count of assault and guilty of one count of sexual assault; not guilty of the second sexual assault charge.
— with files from Benjamin Harrietha