Woman describes repeated assaults at ex-Woodstock mayor’s trial

Article content

Editor’s note: This story contains details about alleged assaults and sexual assaults that may be disturbing to some readers.

She told a harrowing story about what happened on a drive to Turkey Point.

That’s where the woman, aged 39, who says she was routinely sexually assaulted by former Woodstock Mayor Trevor Birtch, 49, said they were in August 2021 when she was brutally beaten by an unknown man and forced into a sex act by the top elected official of the Oxford County city.

Article content

The woman whose identity is protected by court order said through questions from assistant Crown attorney Jennifer Moser at Birtch’s Superior Court sexual assault trial she was in a relationship with him for years. At the time she suffered from various illnesses and addictions, but is now virtually clean.

On that day in August 2021, Birtch picked her up at her Woodstock home in his little electric car and they headed out of town partaking in their usual routine – drinking, snorting cocaine and smoking pot. She wasn’t sure, but they might have ingested some of her prescription meds as well.

They stopped briefly, she said, to look at the scenery, but Birtch made it clear they had a deadline to make. They ended up at a secluded spot where there was a man sitting at a picnic table.

The woman said she tripped on a tree root and broke her ankle – she was too high to be upset – while Birtch was putting together a picnic. He and the man were having a conversation, and the stranger talking crudely about Woodstock, homeless people, the Catholic church and women.

The woman said she talked back and the stranger began smacking her around, while Birtch watched. While she was on the ground, she said the man held a knife to her eye and kicked her in the head. She remembered a woman’s voice yelling she was going to call the police and Birtch finally stepping in.

Article content

“Don’t worry buddy,” she recalled Birtch saying. “She’s probably going to beat me when I get home.”

She said she was covered in blood when Birtch put her in the front seat and her jaw felt out of position. Birtch said he had “a jaw aligner” in his car. He pulled over to a grassy area, they got out of the car, he unzipped his pants, wanting her to perform a sex act. This time, she refused.

Later, when he took her to a hospital for her injuries, she said nothing about any sexual assaults. “It happened so many times. I really didn’t tell anyone what was going on with me.”

Birtch, the former two-term mayor who was turfed out of office in 2022, is on trial for the second time this year, this time pleading not guilty to three counts of sexual assault involving the woman who began her testimony on Thursday.

He was found guilty last month of sexual assaulting and assaulting another woman with whom he carried on a relationship with in 2021. A date for his sentencing still has to be determined.

Article content

There are many parallels between the two cases. Both complainants believed they were in loving relationships with Birtch and both described frightening acts of sexual violence.

The woman who testified Thursday said she first met Birtch when she was 17 and worked as a janitor at the Woodstock courthouse. Later, they became friends when they attended the same non-denominational church .

It wasn’t until 2017, when she was 33, that the sexual relationship began. The woman said she saw  Birtch at an outdoor concert near her home. By then, he was mayor. She said he hugged her and said he would come back to smoke some marijuana.

“Every day after that, he was at my house smoking weed,” she said.

She said she had romantic feelings for him, however, Birtch “would always be bragging about his mayor’s job.” He would pop over to her house between meetings and events, the woman said.

The relationship was “pretty normal” except he was married, the woman said. The relationship was sexual and loving, until he told her he had a work trip – and turned out to be a trip with his now ex-wife, the woman said.

Article content

The woman cut ties with Birtch until 2019, when she needed his help and police connections after a traumatic event. “We kind of got back into it but we didn’t. He was a completely different person,” she said.

By then, she was on her own and taking sleeping pills every day and suffering from a variety of ailments. Birtch wanted her to be dependent on him, telling her that he didn’t want to return to her medications for fear she wouldn’t need him.

She said Birtch had her write down “Trevor loves me and you can trust him” on a piece of paper to read out loud anytime he said something she didn’t believe.

But then, she said, the rapes began. The first time was in her bed. The second time began in the bathroom and Birtch followed all over her home into her bedroom. Another time, she said she was so drunk and high, she couldn’t move off the couch when she said Birtch assaulted her.

The woman said Birtch told her he would be her friend and help her, but wanted sex in return. “There was always a threat there,” she said. “I felt I was forced to do it.”

“It’s not sex, it’s rape…It happened all the time,” she said, but she never told her friends.

“It got to the point that it could happen to me, and I could go next door to my neighbour’s (home)  and have pizza.

“I know it’s not my fault, but I kept letting it happen.”

The woman is expected to continue her testimony on Friday.

jsims@postmedia.com

Article content