Warning: This story contains details of sexual assault that readers may find disturbing.
The trial for a man charged with sexually assaulting and forcibly confining a woman from June 2019 is underway.
The woman, who can’t be named because of a publication ban, alleges Joseph Yaremko forced his way into her apartment and sexually assaulted her.
She took the stand on the first day of his trial and explained how he had asked to borrow a phone, but made his way into the unit, spent hours inside of her home, forced her to take drugs and sexually assaulted her.
She was living in an apartment complex on Wellman Crescent near Stonebridge Boulevard when the alleged assault took place on June 3 and June 4 2019.
The woman, who was 21 years old at the time, testified that she didn’t know Yaremko and that he was armed with a knife which stayed either at his waist or in the same room as him while he was in the unit.
She stated that he physically assaulted her, held a drug pipe to her mouth and made her consume what was later discovered to be methamphetamine, and perform various sexual acts.
The woman says she didn’t consent and said that Yaremko told her, “Every girl secretly wants to be raped.”
However, the defence questioned whether the woman knew him before June 3, 2019.
The lawyer asked whether she had purchased drugs from him and attended a party with him in the past.
She answered no to all questions, but the defence asked a number of questions regarding whether she had some sort of relationship to Yaremko prior to this incident.
Yaremko was sentenced to three years in prison in November 2020 for assaulting an employee at the regional psychiatric centre as he was undergoing an assessment for this incident.
He also had police in a five-hour standoff back in 2014 after escaping from a hospital as a prisoner.
The Crown noted it has around a dozen witnesses who will take the stand, including several police officers.