Testifying from behind a screen, a young woman recalled how an aggressive man she didn’t know barged into her home, threatened her and a roommate, and ordered them to take off their clothes.
On Jan. 27, 2016, the man came to their apartment on Church Avenue in Saanich and pounded on the back door, she said.
Her roommate opened the door and all of a sudden, the man appeared and told them not to yell or scream.
The woman was speaking Tuesday during the opening day of the trial of David Robert Hope, who is charged with two counts of sexual assault, two counts of unlawful confinement, two counts of robbery and one count of breaking and entering with intent to commit an indictable offence.
Hope, 43 at the time of his arrest, has pleaded not guilty.
The two women were students at the University of Victoria and are from another country. The identities of the women, including where they are from, are protected by a publication ban.
The woman testifying Tuesday spoke through an interpreter and had a screen set up beside her to partially shield her from view and help put her at ease.
She became quiet and emotional when describing how the intruder ordered her and her roommate into a bedroom, told them to take off their clothes, and began assaulting them.
Once they were in the bedroom, he said: “Let’s play a game,” the woman testified.
It was hard to think at the time, she said. “My mind was blank.”
She said her roommate managed to get the man to stop by saying that they had money they could give to him.
The women put their clothes back on and led the man to an area on nearby Shelbourne Street where there are a number of bank machines. They went to one where one of their bank cards didn’t work, then crossed the road to another.
The woman testifying said she managed to withdraw $80 or $90 — everything she had. She said she was not sure whether her roommate got any money out.
They gave the money to the man, then decided to make a break for it, finding safety in a Starbucks coffee shop.
In his opening statement, Dan Blumenkrans told the jury that circumstantial evidence, including a DNA sample found on the back door that matches the suspect’s, will be the focal point of the prosecution’s case.
Blumenkrans, an articling student speaking for the Crown, told jurors they will see neither a tearful confession nor hear the story of someone caught in the act.
Rather, he said, they will have to put a series of elements together as they hear from the two women, five police officers and two expert witnesses called by the Crown.
In that sense, Blumenkrans said, the trial will be like a “jigsaw puzzle.”
“No one piece is the clincher,” he said.
The trial is expected to take 14 days.
