WARNING: Some people may find the details in this story and accompanying video disturbing.
Watch above: The victim of an on-campus sexual assault at the University of Saskatchewan in January 2012 says justice for her won’t be served until her missing/convicted assailant is sentenced. Meaghan Craig spoke with the woman who says life as she knew it, is over.
SASKATOON – For three years she’s been haunted by the memories she has after she says she was drugged and repeatedly raped by two men on New Year’s Day 2012 in Saskatoon but only one was found guilty. Protected by a publication ban, you will never see her face or know her name, only her story and her message.
“I had hoped for criminal justice from this and I didn’t get that.”
She made the statement following a grueling trial this past summer. The victim, who was 20 at the time, testified that she was drugged and raped three times, twice vaginally and once anally at a University of Saskatchewan residence building in McEown Park.
At the time, she believed there was only one accused in the assault until DNA from a second man was discovered when her rape kit was processed later that year.
“I immediately felt sick when it happened, I was in bed for two or three days after finding that out.”
The woman, now 23, says what happened to her was the worst night of her life and then there was the trial.
“Having to see your rapists and their friends every day for trial and go in and be on the stand for two days was really difficult.”
The line of questioning by one of the defence lawyers for the co-accused in the trial was even more unbearable.
“She wanted me to describe exactly what it was that I felt that was anally penetrating me.”
“I found that there was no respect giving to me on the stand as a victim as a survivor.”
Both accused in the case, Farouk Sadiq and Butchang Nkem, pleaded not guilty and said the sex was consensual.
“I would never be intimate or have sex with a stranger, let alone two strangers and then the type of sex that it was, the type of rape that it was.”
During the trial, both men told court it was in fact the woman who initiated the sexual acts that took place that night.
“When I heard that my jaw dropped,” said the woman. “Their stories were so dead on with one another it just seemed very rehearsed and not realistic.”
In September, the trial judge found Sadiq not guilty on the grounds he had the honest but mistaken belief that the woman had consented to sex with him.
Butchang Nkem however was found guilty. His testimony dismissed by the judge who would call his version of what happened “less like reality than it does an adolescent fantasy.”
READ MORE: Guilty verdict for one of two men in Saskatoon sexual assault trial
“Nkem’s story is just completely unrealistic and for Farouk to be acquitted for mistaken belief I find is really difficult because I was sleeping in the morning. Even if he had mistaken belief that night, how can you mistaken belief when the woman is sleeping and I woke up to that happening.”
Sentencing for Nkem would be scheduled for Oct. 31, 2014 and the Crown argued for him to be remanded even though his passport had been revoked. The woman said she would later learn that his passport was just expired and that she had a gut feeling he wouldn’t return for sentencing.
She was right.
“I feel like he’s gone, I feel like he’s not in Canada.”
Feeling violated all over again, the woman had prepared a victim impact statement for Nkem’s sentencing.
“I went through a year of not being able to sleep through a whole night,” explained the young woman. “I started going to the university in the fall and I just every time I was at campus, I would get really bad anxiety so I suffer from panic attacks, anxiety. I’ve gone to two different counsellors for three years.”
“I don’t trust people. It has impacted me in every way, relationships with men, every single way.”
The counseling she’s received has helped, she explained, but talking about it her experience has gotten her on the road to recovery.
“As women we shouldn’t have to be scared to go out or scared to wear a dress or even be out in public drinking, we have a right be have fun and be young and do whatever we want to do. I think people need to know, have an understanding of what rape is and men need to know exactly what rape is and what is it does to a person.”
“If someone’s passed out, just because she’s not saying no doesn’t mean she’s saying yes.”
In the meantime, the Saskatoon Police Service says it has interviewed associates of Nkem both locally and provincially but his whereabouts are still unknown.
A Canada-wide warrant has been issued for his arrest and anyone information regarding his location is asked to contact police.
READ MORE: Judge issues arrest warrant for convicted rapist Butchang Nkem
Police have been in contact with Interpol and the province has agreed to have Nkem extradited if he is arrested in a country that has an extradition agreement with Canada.
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