The jury in the British Columbia Supreme Court trial for a former Vancouver Canuck accused of sexual assault is expected to start deliberations Monday.
The Crown and the defence counsel for Jake Virtanen finished their closing arguments focusing on the reliability of the testimony of the two witnesses, Virtanen and the woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her.
Defence lawyer Brock Martland told the jury the 23-year-old woman’s testimony was “riddled” with inconsistencies, some minor and some “fundamental,” arguing she was not a trustworthy witness and saying that wasn’t the case with Virtanen.
Martland says even if jury members are left not knowing who to believe after hearing all of the evidence, they must deliver a verdict of not guilty.
Crown counsel Alan Ip told the jury the woman had a “firm” memory of the critical details surrounding the alleged assault, and argued that failing to remember or making errors in “minor, peripheral” details does not detract from the strength of her evidence that she repeatedly told Virtanen that she did not want to have sex.
She was “unshaken on major and important points of her testimony,” he said.
Ip said Virtanen “concocted and reconstructed” much of his evidence.
Martland suggested she had persuaded herself and come to believe over time that she didn’t consent to having sex with Virtanen, and the civil lawsuit she filed shortly after publicly accusing him shows she was seeking a payout from an NHL player.
Ip told the jury they should view the civil lawsuit as evidence of the woman’s determination in wanting the alleged assault to come to light.
Virtanen, who is now 25, was charged with one count of sexual assault in January following an investigation by Vancouver police.
The court has heard he and the woman met at the Calgary Stampede in 2017, exchanged numbers and kept in touch throughout that summer.
They made plans to meet when she was visiting Vancouver that September and Virtanen picked her up from a friend’s house and drove back to his hotel.
‘Sinking feeling’
The woman testified last week that she had a “sinking feeling” in her stomach when they arrived, but she trusted Virtanen, so she went up to his room.
Virtanen disputed her testimony that she tried to push him off of her.
He said they mutually began kissing and touching each other while lying in bed, and they helped each other take their clothes off before having sex.
The woman did not go to police at the time.
In April 2021, she posted her story to an Instagram page for survivors of sexual assault, then spoke with a reporter from Glacier Media for a newspaper story, naming Virtanen as the man who allegedly sexually assaulted her.
The Canucks placed Virtanen on leave in May 2021 after the assault allegation was made public, and then bought out his contract the following month.
He last played in the Russian-based Kontinental Hockey League.
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