A friend of a 24-year-old woman who was the victim of an alleged gang sexual assault at a Little Italy bar in 2016 testified that she went to visit her in hospital after the incident, saying that the woman “was clearly in pain.”
The alleged incident occurred on Dec. 14, after the friend left the victim alone at the former College Street Bar. The Crown alleges that after the bar closed for the night, two men—Gavin MacMillan, one of the owners of the bar and Enzo DeJesus Carrasco, a manager—sexually assaulted her for at least six hours.
Both men have pleaded not guilty to gang sexual assault, administering a stupefying drug and forceable confinement.
Speaking to the courtroom via CCT camera on Wednesday, the friend, whose identity is protected by the court, said that the victim “was clearly in pain and did not look like anything like the night before."
She said that at the beginning of the evening, the woman was "bubbly, positive, nothing out of the ordinary."
The friend testified that she saw the woman in the hospital the next day with police.
"She did not look well at all, covered in bruises, eyes puffy from crying … She looked like an absolute haggard mess, she looked terrified," the friend said.
Ahead of the friend’s testimony, the jury watched 10 hours of surveillance video that the Crown alleges shows the woman being sexually assaulted. Eight security cameras inside the bar captured the events.
In his opening statement on Oct. 7, Crown Attorney Rick Nathanson told the jury that the victim "shows increasing signs of intoxication; her walk and balance appear to become more wobbly and her gestures more animated."
Nathanson claims that DeJesus Carrasco "forcefully" puts his hand down her pants.
"What seems quite clear is that she's more and more intoxicated as this continues, and each incident ends with her having to stop him, by pulling his hand away or backing herself away," he told the jury.
The Crown alleges that the video shows the accused sometimes “are both participating at the same time.”
Nathanson also said that the woman “looked completely passed out” after collapsing in a chair. At other times late in the night she can be seen kissing the accused.
The alleged victim is scheduled to testify on Thursday morning.