Sudbury track coach and former star sprinter found guilty of sexual assault

Former Sudbury track coach David Case and one of his star sprinters, Celine Loyer, have been found guilty of sexual assault.

The verdict was delivered by Justice Patricia Hennessy in Sudbury court on Thursday morning.

Henessy said she believed the account of a woman who says she was sexually assaulted by the pair at Case's Sudbury home when she was 19 years old in 2011. 

The woman, who cannot be named under a publication ban, said she doesn't have direct memories of the assault, but the details came to her in the days that followed the assault.

The woman told the court that she recalled her vagina being digitally penetrated by Loyer, while Case sat nearby encouraging Loyer.

The woman suggested in her testimony that Case may have put something in her drink, which caused her to forget most of what happened that night and feel groggy and ill for several days after.

The defence lawyers for Loyer and Case argued that this was just a vivid dream and that the woman couldn't remember something that happened when she claimed to be unconscious.

"The sexual assault was not a dream," Hennessy concluded.

"She recounted the event spontaneously and naturally and very near contemporaneously to the event."

In her decision, Hennessy also noted that the woman has been very consistent in her account of what happened that night, even when confronted with Case's version of events.

Judge says Case's story 'makes no sense'

Case claimed that the woman was very intoxicated that night and became sexually aggressive to Loyer and Case. 

"I do not find this alternate scenario reasonable," Hennessy told the court Thursday. "It makes no sense."

Back in 2011, the woman was examined at the Sudbury hospital, where nurses noted bruising on her thighs.

Hennessy said that medical report "corroborates and confirms" the flashback.

She said while the woman's account is that Case only observed the sexual assault taking place, Hennessy ruled that his involvement still makes him guilty of sexual assault.

"He was not merely observing. Mr. Case was facilitating the incident from beginning to end," the judge ruled.

What punishment Case and Loyer will receive will be determined during a sentencing hearing to be held in the coming months.

Loyer, 30 and Case, 57, were not taken into custody. 

She wiped away tears while the verdict was read. Case showed little reaction to his conviction. 

Case also recently stood trial for a different set of sexual assault and assault charges dating back to the 1980s.

That verdict is scheduled to be released March 13.