WARNING: this article contains details about a criminal sexual assault trial and may be disturbing to some readers. If you or someone you know has been impacted by sexual violence, contact Archway Society for Domestic Peace at 250-542-1122. All programs are easily accessible, free of charge and confidential.
The retrial of a former Vernon hockey coach accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl 20 years ago wrapped up in B.C. Supreme Court in Vernon Friday, Nov. 29.
The defence attempted to poke holes in the complainant's accounts of what happened, and the Crown told the court that it is reasonable for there to be inconsistencies in these accounts due to how long it's been since the alleged assault.
Keith Chase is accused of sexually assaulting the complainant, who was a player on the hockey team he coached in 2004, when she was 16. The complainant's identity is shielded by a publication ban.
Chase was charged in 2020 and pleaded not guilty, but he was found guilty at the conclusion of a trial in 2022 and sentenced to two years in jail in 2023. However, he successfully appealed the conviction and a retrial was scheduled. Chase's second trial resumed Friday after three days of trial hearings in May.
At the end of the Crown's and the defence's closing submissions, Justice Sheri Donegan reserved her decision. It will be given at a later date.
Crown prosecutor Matthew Blow laid out the allegations against Chase based on previous testimony from the complainant and her father. This summary included three alleged incidents of sexual assault he said were "the heart of the Crown's allegations in this case."
The court heard that the alleged sexual assault took place at Chase's residence, while the complainant — a player on the hockey team that Chase coached — was having a sleepover at the residence prior to a game in Kamloops the next day. The complainant was familiar with the Chase home; she was friends with Chase's daughter and played hockey with her, and had been to the residence before.
Blow said his client had recalled in the trial that Chase had kissed her on the mouth — the first instance of alleged sexual assault — in the kitchen on the night of the sleepover. She had testified that the accused's hands were on her back and she was thinking "what the hell," Blow recounted.
The second instance of sexual assault allegedly took place in Chase's daughter's bed, where the complainant was to sleep that night. This instance involved sexual touching of the complainant's genitals. The complainant had told the court she believed Chase was the only adult in the house at the time, and described Chase putting his hand beneath her nightclothes. She had testified that she heard one of Chase's young children "fussing," as Blow said, leading to the end of the second instance, as Chase then got up, left the room and began singing to the child — a "unique" memory that Blow said added to the veracity of her testimony.
According to Blow, the third instance of alleged sexual assault — again sexual touching and also cunnilingus — took place in the master bedroom. The complainant has previously said she recalled the accused saying, "You're going to like this."
"She felt horrible, sad, shameful and scared," Blow said regarding what allegedly happened that night.
The court heard that the next day, the players went with Chase to the game in Kamloops. The complainant's father had previously testified that he picked his daughter up from the game in Kamloops, and on the drive home she started sobbing. She'd testified that she blamed her emotions on losing the hockey game which ended her team's season, but that she was really upset about what had happened the night before.
In 2008, the complainant told her parents about what allegedly happened roughly four years earlier. She decided at that time not to go to the police, but did so in 2020 after confronting Chase. This followed a chance encounter with Chase's daughter at the school the complainant was then teaching at, an encounter Blow said "brought back the matter to her."
Blow set out to show that the complainant's evidence was "credible and reliable." He told the court that gaps in the complainant's memory were understandable given it had been 20 years since the alleged sexual assault.
Defence counsel Richard Fowler, however, seized upon these gaps. In his closing submissions, he went through the complainant's statements at length, highlighting what he called "inconsistencies" he said lead to a "fundamental lack of reliability in her evidence."
"The complainant's recollection of events, the substance of her allegations, were replete with internal and external inconsistencies," Fowler said. "She described having flashes of memory. It's my respectful submission that in fact it's clear that at the time (of her previus testimony) she was guessing — she used the word herself."
Fowler said the complainant had previously explained to the court that conversations with psychologists and her family allowed her to "access parts of her memory." He said this didn't resolve the fact that statements she made to the police, a handwritten statement and testimony in court showed discrepancies.
"In this trial, she had first testified that she did not know how she ended up in the master bedroom, to moments later saying that she remembered walking down the hallway, and then moments later again she did not know whether Mr. Chase led or carried her," Fowler said, one example of many he put forward.
At the end of the hearing, Justice Donegan reserved her decision. The matter will return to court on Dec. 9 for the purpose of fixing a date for her decision to be given.
