Editor's note: Warning. This story contains graphic content and may not be suitable for all readers.
Closing arguments were heard in the first of two trials of former Sechelt RCMP officer and football coach Gary Rudi Groenke, who is accused of sexually assaulting two young boys in the '80s and '90s. The closing arguments were held at Vancouver Supreme Court on May 18, with Madam Justice Mary Ellen Boyd hearing from both defence counsel Patrick Doherty and Crown counsel Marion West.
The two asked for near-opposite judgments in their arguments, with Doherty asking for acquittal of all charges, and West asking for a guilty verdict on all counts of gross indecency and sexual assault.
"There is no evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the accused had any sexual encounters with the complainant," Doherty said.
Doherty attempted to discredit the alleged victim by poking at conflicting testimony with the complainant's statements during trial and differing witness accounts and original police statements he made.
"It's hard to know if he actually remembers these things or he's thinking that's what must have happened," Doherty said. "We don't know if, in fact, the memories were recalled or constructed."
Doherty pointed at a statement the alleged victim made during cross-examination, where he said beyond a doubt that no sexual assault happened after he was 13 years old since he would have been old enough to stand up for himself and say no. Doherty took this statement and challenged the timeline of the alleged victim's recollection of when the alleged sexual encounters happened.
"For argument's sake, let's assume these sexual encounters took place after 1988, then the Crown must prove a lack of consent beyond a reasonable doubt, which was not shown," he said.
Doherty said if the alleged victim was over 14 years old when the sexual encounters took place, he was at the proper age of consent.
He went on to cite the alleged victim again, taking testimony during the trial where he recalled going to Ruby Lake, the first of three places where Groenke is accused of sexually assaulting him, in a pick-up truck. The alleged victim described the pick-up truck as an "odd light-green and white" colour. When pressed, he said it could have been an off-blue colour.
Doherty said Groenke's pick-up truck was purchased in August of 1988 and was blue and white, when the alleged victim would have been 15 years old.
All other sexual encounters happened after Ruby Lake, which the defence says proves the then teen was at least 15 years old during all encounters.
Following Ruby Lake was an alleged sexual assault at Mount Richardson and again at Groenke's former home on Wharf Road.
"He said Wharf Road happened six to seven months after Mount Richardson, which would make it the winter/spring of '89, when he was 16," Doherty said. "That further supports us to the timing."
Doherty also pointed to parts of the alleged victim's recollection of these sexual assaults, including the Wharf Road incident, where he described Groenke as owning a hot tub. Doherty said Groenke purchased a hot tub in the summer of 1988.
Doherty finished his closing argument by saying the alleged victim's memory was "highly variable and inconsistent."
West then stood before the court and began by saying yes, the Wharf Road incident could have happened in 1988 as Doherty said, but the other two incidents did not.
"If he was older than 14, then it's an issue of consent, but the Crown submits the victim did not consent," West said. "Passive acquiescence of what was done to him is not the same as consent."
She argued consent must be freely and explicitly given and not acquired through fear of harm, as West said was done.
"If someone is afraid to do anything and is merely passive, that is not consent," she said.
"[The alleged victim] testified he was always afraid," West said, adding he saw Groenke as an older man who was an RCMP officer who could "seemingly do anything."
"He had a firearm, provided alcohol, sped down the highway he was afraid of him."
West said it all came down to the alleged victim's testimony for the Crown's case. She said he had nothing to gain from coming forward and has only had to relive the incidents again.
She said the alleged victim's inconsistencies come from the more than 20-year time lapse between the incident and trial.
"Given the number of years that passed, those discrepancies are understandable," she said. "The impact on his life has been massive. There is nothing to suggest this witness had anything to gain and subject himself to what must be a very difficult experience."
Justice Boyd said she would need time to decide on her ruling and set a date for June 17. The date to set the second trial is scheduled for June 22.
A publication ban has been imposed prohibiting the publication of anything that may identify the alleged victims or witnesses in the trial.
Groenke was acquitted in February 2008 in a Victoria courtroom of similar sex offences against minors.
