A former Victoria High School teacher could not explain how photographs of a woman’s underwear drawer and the inside of her house ended up on his camera.
Francesco Canacari, 46, is charged with criminally harassing two women and being unlawfully in their homes in the spring of 2010. His trial in Victoria provincial court has heard that he relentlessly sent texts and emails to Tracy Gershman, a woman he had a brief relationship with. Gershman discovered from neighbours that he was at her house three or four times looking into windows.
A second woman, Erin Meyer, testified that she only wanted a platonic relationship with Canacari. When her old boyfriend came back into her life, she began receiving crank calls and anonymous emails. When police found two pairs of her underwear at his home, she left town.
On Friday during cross-examination, Canacari denied ever being inside Gershman’s home and taking the photographs.
Canacari agreed with prosecutor Chandra Fisher that Gershman did not tell him where she lived and had told him she didn’t want him to come to her house.
He admitted that, in a phone call at the end of March, Gershman told him if he ever came near her place again, she would call the police and his school.
She asked Canacari about Gershman’s underwear found by police in his nightstand drawer in June 2010.
“You had no reason to keep her underwear,” Fisher said.
“I forgot they were there,” Canacari said. “They didn’t mean anything. … I did not keep them as a souvenir. I put them in the drawer and forgot they were there.”
Immediately after their breakup, Gershman started receiving crank calls on her phone, Fisher noted.
Canacari said he did not make the calls.
Fisher asked him about the photos taken inside Gershman’s house.
“You broke into her house and took photos of her underwear,” Fisher charged.
“I never went in that house. I did not take those pictures. They are on my camera. They are not taken by me.”
The trial has heard that police called Canacari on May 20 and told him not to contact Meyer. The next day, Canacari reported his camera and computer stolen.
However, both items reappeared at the house in June. Police found the computer in his garage during their search on June 16.
“I didn’t know that computer had been placed in my garage. I did not know anything about that computer,” Canacari said.
“It was never stolen,” Fisher said.
“It was taken from my home the day I made the claim,” Canacari replied.
After police phoned Canacari, he tried to delete a Gmail account, then called Dial-a-Geek to try to have his computer cleaned.
But Canacari suggested the Gmail account — along with a whole history of emails to Meyer from an anonymous friend — had been created by his former roommate, Terry Bogue.
“I did not do it,” Canacari said.
Fisher showed Canacari emails from Meyer where she makes it clear she doesn’t want to have sex with him.
“I wasn’t looking for a platonic relationship,” he testified. “I don’t care what she said in her testimony … we did not have a platonic relationship.”
Judge Jeanne Harvey has asked the Crown and defence to make final written submissions. The trial will resume on June 26.
