Alleged victim of gang sexual assault grilled by defence during cross examination

A woman who says she was the victim of an alleged gang sexual assault at a bar in Little Italy said in court Monday she endured months of depression and feelings of shame after the incident. But then she was subjected to a tough cross-examination by the defence, who suggested she consented to the sex acts caught on video.

The woman, whose identity is protected under a publication ban, is testifying for a second day in a trial against the two men accused of carrying out the assault.

It is alleged to have taken place at the now-closed College Street Bar on Dec. 14, 2016.

Former bar owner Gavin MacMillan, 44, and manager Enzo De Jesus Carrasco, 34, each face charges of gang sexual assault, administering a stupefying drug and forcible confinement. De Jesus Carrasco also faces two additional charges of sexual assault.

Both men have pleaded not guilty to the charges and are standing trial in Ontario Superior Court with Justice Michael Dambrot presiding.

The Crown has argued that MacMillan and De Jesus Carrasco plied the woman with alcohol and encouraged her to snort cocaine after she arrived at the bar. The prosecution says she did not have the capacity to consent to having sex and was prevented from leaving during the extended encounter, much of which was captured by security cameras inside the bar.

The jury must decide whether the woman consented or had the capacity to consent to having sex with the two men.

After providing her account of the incident last week, the woman described a spate of injuries and psychological trauma as a result of the attack during her second day of testimony.

"I remember lying on the couch for, like, a month or more straight," she told the jury.

The woman recalled feeling "ashamed of what happened. For some reason, I thought I could have done something. It just kept running through my brain, all the things I could have done."

She also described bruising on her neck and arms, and pain in her jaw and knees following the incident.

Around two weeks after the night of the alleged assault, the victim said her then-boyfriend discovered multiple videos and photos on her phone that appeared to capture parts of the incident, which she did not remember being taken.

She told the court that she only saw one of the photos, and that she deleted the other files before realizing they might have been valuable to the investigation.

"I panicked," she said.

Woman was willing participant, defence says

During cross-examination later Monday afternoon, defence lawyers suggested the alleged victim was a willing participant in the encounter.

MacMillan's lawyer Sean Robichaud also suggested the woman has a "reasonably good memory" of the incident, in comparison to the hazy recollection she has previously described in court.

Robichaud suggested the woman expressed her desire to have a threesome with both men and that she wanted to play a submissive role in the encounter. He suggested that she explicitly asked to participate in a variety of violent sexual acts.

The woman disagreed with each suggestion.

"I would never want that," she said to one question about oral sex.

Robichaud also suggested that she intentionally deleted the videos on her phone because she had asked for the sex to be recorded at the time it happened.

In her previous testimony, the woman described a "horrifying" feeling of intoxication after consuming alcohol and cocaine provided by MacMillan and De Jesus Carrasco.

She said the two men prevented her from leaving the bar, and that both men raped her during the assault. She says De Jesus Carraso later took her to his home and raped her again.

The trial continues Tuesday.