Kingston court hears victim testimony of alleged sexual predator | #childpredator | #kidsaftey | #childsaftey

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The stories told this week by women testifying at the trial of a 40-year-old alleged sexual predator in Kingston were, by turns, heart-breaking, lurid and depraved.

Heartbreaking because three young women, ranging in age from 17 to 20 back in 2007, were working dead-end jobs, for a time living out of a car in the winter and smoking weed to numb their pain.

Lurid because, according to their testimony, their weed dealer offered them a place to stay as his roommates, but soon sexually assaulted them in a series of incidents across a few weeks and was, according to one of the women, “working his way through (the three of) us.”

Depraved, because they told the court, the weed dealer, 23 at the time, became involved with a 15-year-old high schooler who worked with the women at a fast-food restaurant.

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The women were called by the Crown to testify in Ontario Superior Court in Kingston where Michael Haaima is on trial, facing 98 charges for incidents dating back to 2007 through to his arrest in 2022. Among the charges against the 40-year-old tech worker are more than 30 counts of sexual assault, including several involving weapons or choking.

In its trial’s opening last week, assistant Crown Megan Williams stated that 28 women will testify at the trial, which is expected to stretch into the fall. Madame Justice Robyn Ryan Bell is presiding over the trial without a jury.

A Kingston woman testified on Monday that she had bought marijuana from Haaima and had consensual sex with him prior to the women finding themselves out on the street. She said she had been a sexually “inexperienced” 18-year-old when she went to Haaima’s house on Selkirk Street to watch movies and eat pizza. She told the court she wasn’t prepared for Haaima hitting and choking her during sex, but didn’t tell her friend and her sister about the incident, though they noticed bruises on her.

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The woman then recounted how she and the other two women had been summarily thrown out of their house by her father, an alcoholic who worked a midnight shift at a 24-hour restaurant and who had a criminal record. She said the message had been delivered via a voicemail with his threat to call police and report their drug use.

The woman told the court she had gone to Haaima’s house to buy drugs while they were living in her friend’s car, a Pontiac Sunbird. According to her testimony on Monday, Haaima offered to take the three women in as roommates, but under cross-examination by his defence lawyer, Natasha Calvinho, the woman said she had told the police investigating Haaima 15 years later that they had asked him to stay at his Selkirk Street three-bedroom home.

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Monday’s witness accounted for lapses in her memory by saying she had “a history of trauma and disassociates.”

The woman told the court Haaima had assaulted her after they moved in, penetrating her with his fingers while she was lying on his bed along with the other two women watching television and falling asleep. She testified that she told him to stop and told him she had her period, he told her to “take out your tampon and throw it under the bed.”

On Tuesday and Wednesday, her older friend, no longer residing in Kingston, was called to testify online from a remote location. On Tuesday, she testified while clutching her newborn baby who slept for hours at a stretch.

Under direct examination from assistant Crown Holly Chiavetti, the witness said she met Haaima the night in March of 2007 when the women moved out of her car and into his home. She told the court she had been initially attracted to him, describing him as “a pretty boy (with) piercings … fit and well-kept.”

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“He seemed like a nice, reasonable guy (who was going to) help us when we needed help,” the woman said. “Cool, collected.”

The witness said Haaima forced his hand down her pyjama pants and penetrated her with his fingers while she was laying on his bed, watching television with her friend beside her.

“I told him it’s not my style — not with my best friend there,” she testified. “It was inappropriate. I wasn’t comfortable. He rolled over and moved on to (my friend).”

According to her testimony about an incident the next month, Haaima phoned her to pick him up at a west-end bar. She said Haaima was drunk and abusive toward her and exposed himself in the bar, grabbing her neck and pushing her face-first toward his groin, demanding oral sex.

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She told the court she then drove Haaima and another man back to the house on Selkirk Street and went upstairs to use the bathroom. She said Haaima and the man broke into the bathroom and the two of them touched her sexually while she was sitting on the toilet. The other man seemed to be going along only at Haaima’s urging and left the bathroom, she said.

The witness testified she tried to get away from Haaima, jumping up on the bathroom vanity, but he sexually violated her there. “He penetrated me multiple times,” she said.

According to her testimony, Haaima then picked her up and carried her into his bedroom, throwing her down on the bed beside his friend who had passed out. She said the accused then raped her, ejaculating without a condom.

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“I kept saying, ‘No, stop it,’ but I think it fuelled his fire,” the woman told the court in a controlled and at times hushed voice, so he didn’t wake her baby. “I was lost, scared and just wanted to get out. I wondered why a roomful of people downstairs couldn’t hear me.”

The witness said on Tuesday that she didn’t file a police report in 2007 nor at any point after.

“I question myself about that,” she said. “He went through (the three of) us like we were notches on his bedpost.”

The witness said she avoided being in the house alone with Haaima for a few weeks after the incident. By that time, he had focused his attention on a 15-year-old who worked with the three women at a fast-food restaurant.

“He lost interest in (the three of) after that,” the witness said. “We brought it up with (the 15-year-old) a couple of times but she didn’t understand our concerns with the age difference.”

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One of the charges against Haaima is for sexual exploitation, which is tied to his alleged involvement with the 15-year-old. The witness on Monday testified that Haaima moved into the home of the 15-year-old and her mother, who had been “okay with it” despite his age.

Throughout the women’s testimony this week, the gaunt Haaima stared blankly ahead, avoiding eye contact with the witness in the courtroom on Monday. For the witness testifying remotely on Tuesday and Wednesday, he wasn’t on camera in the box.

The trial continues on Thursday.

The  identities of the women are shielded by a publication ban.

A joint investigation between the Ontario Provincial Police and Kingston Police, dubbed “Project Shamrock,” began in January 2022, when Kingston Police were made aware of an individual luring victims through social media platforms. Haaima was arrested on  April 6, 2022.

gjoyce@postmedia.com

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