Former Canadian navy officer found guilty of sexual assault aboard historic navy tall ship
Former Canadian navy officer found guilty of sexual assault aboard historic navy tall ship
Cadets and crewmembers aboard the training vessel HMCS Oriole near Whitby, Ont. as part of the vessel’s 2018 Great Lakes deployment on Aug. 10, 2018. (Royal Canadian Navy)
A retired Canadian navy officer has been found guilty of assault, sexual assault and uttering threats against a young female cadet aboard a navy sailboat more than a decade and a half ago.
The charges against former petty officer first class James R. Levesque stemmed from a 2006 sailing of HMCS Oriole, a historic training vessel that serves double-duty as a showpiece of the navy on its summer voyages along Canada's coastlines.
The victim, who cannot be identified under a court-imposed publication ban, testified at a court martial hearing in Victoria that Levesque, a senior non-commissioned officer, repeatedly groped her and physically assaulted her, once leaving bruises on her arms, during the ship's journey that summer from southern Vancouver Island to Alaska.
He later threatened to have sex with her and leave further bruising on her body, despite her protests, the court heard.
The incidents left the cadet with a lingering fear of sailing and an inability to sleep aboard vessels, a significant hindrance to her future career in the navy, she said.
Levesque denied the allegations, pleading not guilty to all three charges.
'TERRORIZING' TWO MONTHS
There were no eyewitnesses to the assaults or threats, the court heard, while the defence provided testimony from fellow sailors who said the incidents were never relayed up the ship's chain of command.
The prosecution did provide testimony from another woman who was among the vessel's 24-person crew that summer. She testified that the victim confided in her about the assaults and threats, saying the two of them would later coordinate their excursions ashore during port visits so the victim would not be alone, fearing for her safety.
The witness also testified that some of the male sailors refused to accompany the victim ashore because they would "get dirty looks" from passersby due to the significant bruising on her arms.
The victim testified that the assaults made her feel "scared and really worthless," and said that a senior officer discouraged her from reporting the incidents to police.
The court was shown more than 100 photos taken aboard the ship between June 1 and July 31, 2006. The photos depicted a party atmosphere on the 31-metre ship that summer, with shirtless male sailors drinking tequila and, in another photo, exposing their bare buttocks during a beach visit.
But the prosecution described a "terrorizing" two months for the victim aboard the Oriole, the oldest vessel in the Royal Canadian Navy, now based out of Halifax.
"I was so excited when I first got to the ship," the victim told the court, adding that she "wasn't the same again" when the ship arrived back in Esquimalt.
The guilty verdict landed on the eve of a highly anticipated report into sex offences in the Canadian Armed Forces, in which a retired Supreme Court justice urged the military to hand over the prosecution of sex crimes in its ranks to the civilian court system.
Levesque will be sentenced during a hearing scheduled to begin on July 9.
Convicted murderer Daniel Jolivet, in prison for the past 30 years, has maintained his innocence since the day he was arrested. W5 reviews the evidence he painstakingly assembled while behind bars. W5's documentary 'Buried Evidence' airs Saturday at 7 p.m. on CTV.
The massive white orb drifting across U.S. airspace has triggered a diplomatic maelstrom and is blowing up on social media. A look at what's known about the balloon crossing the U.S. and what isn't.
In the field of cancer treatment, nothing is more important than diagnosing and treating the problem as quickly as possible — but according to new survey data, about one in four Canadian cancer patients report that they are still experiencing cancelled or postponed appointments.
The oldest preserved vertebrate brain has been found in a 319-million-year-old fossilized fish skull that was removed from an English coal mine over a century ago.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has said the supply of more advanced U.S. weaponry to Ukraine will only trigger more retaliatory strikes from Russia, up to the extent of Russia's nuclear doctrine.
The suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that was found floating over sensitive military sites in the western United States had been tracked by Canada's government since last weekend as it passed through Canadian airspace, sources tell CTV News.
It took 40 years, but former NHL player and coach Ted Nolan is now one of eight Indigenous ex-NHL-ers being honoured hockey trading cards as a part of Upper Deck's First Peoples Rookie Card series.
Indian police have arrested more than 2,000 men in a crackdown on illegal child marriages involving girls under the age of 18 in a northeastern state, officials said Saturday.
The mayors of Port Coquitlam and Port Moody want Nav Canada — the organization that creates flight paths for airports across the country — to pause its plans for a new YVR arrivals route that will direct many large airplanes over their communities.
Seventy-nine-year-old William Herbert thought the woman coming to see him was a nurse who needed to do bloodwork. But instead of helping him, it’s alleged she stole from him.
An Edmonton man who received a ticket from the city under the phase 2 residential parking ban earlier this week says his street has finally been plowed — five days after his vehicle was ticketed.
Marc, Seth and Zacary James are the Melisizwe Brothers, and they performed at Jasper Place High School on Friday as part of Edmonton Public School Black History Month celebrations.
Technology in Alberta that is expected to allow doctors to more accurately and effectively treat cancerous tumours with radiation enters clinical trials next week.
After being charged with speeding by a city-operated photo radar device, a Toronto family was able to successfully fight the charge in court largely due to one small detail.
Torontonians appear to be returning downtown in greater numbers but the pace of the city’s economic recovery still lags behind many other North American cities, a new study suggests.
The Lethbridge Hurricanes kept Connor Bedard off the scoresheet for the first time in 36 games, but it wasn't enough, as the 'Canes lost 3-2 to the Regina Pats Friday night.
Alberta's high court is being asked to overturn a review board decision relating to the stabbing deaths of five young people at a Calgary house party on the grounds the former provincial justice minister interfered.
Residents from Quebec to Newfoundland and Labrador are waking up this morning to more extreme cold weather. Emergency officials warned people to seek shelter and monitor for frostbite if they had to be outside overnight, as the temperature across much of Eastern Canada was expected to feel like -40 C to -50 C with the wind chill.
A Quebec university study found that nearly three years of the pandemic have had an effect on the travel habits of Quebecers: even with the partial or complete lifting of restrictions, they increasingly prefer to travel at home. The most recent Cahier des tendances published by the Transat Chair in Tourism at the École des sciences de la gestion de l'UQAM revealed that inflation and health measures hurt many Quebecers.
With all of the Maritimes still under extreme cold warnings Saturday morning, more than 34,000 households and businesses are without power, as of 11 a.m.
Winnipeg police released a new image of a 31-year-old woman who has been missing since early last year on Friday in the hope it may generate new information on her whereabouts.
A fire destroyed a popular paint and hobby shop in Winkler Thursday afternoon with black smoke prompting Winkler police to close off a stretch of Highway 32 for more than an hour.
Waterloo regional police issued a robbery warning Thursday evening after they said two convenience stores and a restaurant in Kitchener were robbed within a 30 minute span.
Saskatchewan is reacting to the removal of controversial amendment G4 to Bill C-21 by the federal Liberals, which banned certain semi-automatic rifles and shotguns.
Parents of students with special needs are speaking out about a decision by the Simcoe County District School Board to change transportation options starting Monday.
After months of driving around the city with an advertisement for a kidney donor on her bright red car, Debbie Onishenko will soon be able to rip off the decals as her search has ended.
Canada's newest millionaire, an 18-year-old university freshman from northern Ontario, has achieved a lot of firsts with a recent lottery win. Here is her story.
An investigation that lasted almost two years has resulted in moose hunting violation convictions for six people and a lodge in Red Lake in northwestern Ontario.
Cadets and crewmembers aboard the training vessel HMCS Oriole near Whitby, Ont. as part of the vessel’s 2018 Great Lakes deployment on Aug. 10, 2018. (Royal Canadian Navy)
