An inmate serving a sentence for sexual assault claimed Tuesday that he committed the crimes that David Robert Hope is on trial for in B.C. Supreme Court.
Jean Nadeau, imprisoned at Matsqui Institute in Abbotsford, became the first defence witness to testify at Hope’s trial for the sexual assault, unlawful confinement and robbery of two University of Victoria international students on Jan. 27, 2016.
“Why are you here today?” asked defence lawyer Ryan Drury.
“Because the accused is being charged for something I did,” Nadeau told the five-man, seven-woman jury.
Nadeau, who has extremely short dark hair and weighs 240 pounds, testified that he met Hope while they were both being held in pre-trial custody for sexual offences at the Vancouver Island Regional Correctional Centre.
“I was very worried when I got there because I was up for a sexual offence. He told me not to worry because everyone was there for a sexual offence.”
Nadeau said he heard Hope talking to another inmate about his case and later on realized Hope had been charged for his crimes. “I was a little bit worried. In my head, I knew it was me that did it, basically.”
Nadeau said he didn’t react at first, but eventually confessed to Hope.
“I knew I was going to plead guilty to [my] charge, so I said: ‘OK, I did this. Do you want me to testify for you or not?’ ”
Nadeau struggled to remember when that conversation took place. “I’m really bad with dates,” he told Drury.
Nadeau testified that he was messed up on GHB and cocaine when he sexually assaulted and stole money from two young Asian women after entering their Saanich home near UVic. He said he was getting on and off buses and could not remember the name of their street or describe their apartment building.
He said he looked inside their apartment from a window and told the students to get on the ground. Then he told one of the women to open the door. When she did, he came into the apartment and told them to get on the ground while he looked around for items to steal.
“I told them to get to the bedroom,” Nadeau testified. “I told them to get undressed.”
Both women undressed until they were in their underwear, he said.
Nadeau testified that he bent over one of the women, took her panties off and sexually assaulted her. Then he stopped and turned the lights back on.
“It was the first time I’d ever done anything like that and I felt uncomfortable so I stopped,” he said.
He took about $60 in change out of a change jar, put the change in his pocket and threw the jar on the bed. Then he grabbed an iPhone to sell. The women offered him $1,000, Nadeau testified.
The women got dressed and they left the apartment. They wanted to stop at a restaurant down the road from their apartment building to get money to pay him, but Nadeau said he didn’t feel comfortable waiting for them to go into the restaurant.
Nadeau testified that he stayed across the street when the students unsuccessfully tried to get money at a bank.
The women then went across the street to another bank, where they managed to get $160. Nadeau said he took the money and left.
“I ran down the road to catch a bus. I threw the phone away in a yard.”
Nadeau testified that he didn’t watch or read the news and never saw surveillance video of the suspect because he was living on the streets at that time. He said the last time he saw Hope was 10 months ago and has not spoken to him since.
The two men are the same size, said Nadeau. “He was bald. I always had short hair.”
Nadeau said he was willing to testify for Hope because he believes he is protected from prosecution under the Canada Evidence Act.
He told prosecutor Patrick Weir that he and Hope were in the same prison unit for nine months.
He said he had not read the disclosure documents Hope received from the Crown that included all police reports and witness statements.
Weir will continue his cross-examination today.
Court was told earlier that Hope’s DNA was found at the crime scene.
