City Man Facing Jury Trial On Sexual Interference, Child Porn and Extortion charges

A 52-year-old city man is facing a jury of his peers as his trial on allegations of sexual interference and assault, extortion and making child pornography at Medicine Hat Court of King’s Bench.

The trial opened Monday with jury selection of six men and six women. Testimony began by the afternoon but jurors only heard about two hours from the first witness, the complainant, before the jury was excused until Wednesday afternoon.

The Owl is not identifying the complainant due to a publication ban protecting their identity nor is identifying the accused due to the nature of the relationship between the two.

The court heard testimony the allegations stem from a series of incidents that began in 2018 when the complainant was 15 years old, stretching to 2020.

The complainant told the court they had first met the accused at the age of 8 through a parent but only had sporadic contact with him until they were 14 years old. At that time, the complainant began to spend extended periods of time at the accused’s home before settling on just on staying over at the man’s home on occasional weekends leading up to the time of the allegations.

The complainant testified to being restrained by a bondage device, that fasten onto the neck and wrists, by the accused while a sexual device was utilized over a period of two hours. The man had left the room only to return an hour later to adjust the sexual device, the court heard.

The complainant testified they were 15 years old at the time.

The court heard the relationship between the two continued, leading to a number of sexual encounters between the two being video recorded by multiple devices.

The complaint told the court those incidents started when they were 16 years old and began when they inquired about why police had seized the computers of a neighbour of the accused.

The court heard the complainant’s testimony that the accused explained he knew someone who was a computer hacker who could share that information.

But the information would come at the cost of the complainant having to provide three sexually explicit videos of themselves.

The accused went on to state that the hacker could set up a website on the dark web that could earn “easy money” for sexually explicit material, according to testimony from the complainant.

“I wanted to contribute to the family. . .I thought I wasn’t doing enough,” the complainant testified regarding their motivation to agreeing to be video taped engaged in explicit sexual acts at the accused’s home. The accused was engaged with those activities ranging from providing sexual devices to committing sexual acts with the complainant. Several of those acts included the complainant being restrained, according to their testimony.

Throughout the complainant’s testimony, the court heard all known communications with the hacker came from the accused with the exception of a single text message.

The complainant testified the accused said the hacker was getting impatient with the delivery of the explicit videos and, “when I turned 16, the pressure was turned up on me.”

Several videos were recorded utilizing multiple cameras with the accused then editing them, the complainant  testified.

Despite the promise of money from making the explicit videos, the complainant testified to never actually receiving any.

At one point, the complainant testified the accused stated the hacker had sold subscriptions to a dark web site which resulted in the hacker being beaten, computers destroyed and he was forced to move due to not being provided enough explicit material.

The complaint testified to continuing to making sexual explicit videos in an attempt to avoid threats that the hacker would hurt their family. That continued until they were 17 years old, the court heard.

Testimony from the complainant is expected to continue today.