'I never asked for any of that,' accused RNC officer testifies in sex assault trial

A St. John's police officer testified for the third time in front of a jury Monday, telling the court the young woman he had sex withwhile on duty initiated the act.

Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officer Doug Snelgrove was charged with sexual assault in 2015, after a woman accused him of having sex with her despite her being so drunk she can't remember whether she consented.

Snelgrove testified Monday the woman appeared coherent and sober throughout their interactions.

In December 2014, Snelgrove, parked in downtown St. John's early one morning, noticed the young woman trying to get into his car, he told the court.

According to Snelgrove, the woman then asked him for a ride home. Snelgrove initially declined, but the woman's alleged persistence changed his mind. She directed him to her apartment, where he helped her inside, he testified.

Snelgrove described a sense of confusion about what happened next. He recalled wondering why he had accepted her invitation to go inside the apartment, and said he told her he was leaving multiple times.

The woman walked in front of him as he turned to exit the apartment, and stood on her "tippy-toes" to kiss him, Snelgrove said. She then removed all her clothes, and he helped her unbuckle his belt, he said.

Snelgrove testified the woman, whose identity is protected under Canadian sexual assault legislation, then willingly performed oral sex on him before guiding him to her loveseat, where the two had vaginal and anal intercourse.

Defence lawyer Randy Piercey asked Snelgrove why he entered her apartment.

"Idon't know," Snelgrove answered. "For the last seven years I've tried to figure out why. I don't know."

"Who initiated it?" said Piercey.

"She did," he replied. "She started to kiss me first. She undid my belt, lowered my pants, provided oral sex. I never asked for any of that."

Snelgrove said he asked permission before having anal intercourse with her. According to his testimony, the woman verbally consented and nodded her head.

She asked him to stay with her after the act, he said, but he left quickly.

Snelgrove, who has been married for 18 years, then broke down in the witness box, overcome with emotion.

"I felt rotten," hesaid. "I started thinking about my wife. I couldn't believe what I had just done.

"I was upset with myself, that I would allow myself to do that."

Woman went unreported

Crown counsel Lloyd Strickland questioned, for the third time in front of a jury, Snelgrove's motives that night, suggesting Snelgrove intended to have sex with the woman.

The complainant told the court last week that Snelgrove called out to her as she walked out of a nightclub and offered her a ride home, not the other way around.

If she had in fact tried to open the door of his patrol car, Strickland asked, wouldn't that strike you as unusual?

No, Snelgrove answered.

"Don't you think that's an indication someone's impaired, not thinking straight?" Strickland prompted him.

No, Snelgrove said again.

Strickland then suggested Snelgrove should have known the woman was under the influence, pointing to testimony from another witness a friend of the woman's who had spoken to her on the phone just before she entered her apartment who could tell by her voice she'd been drinking.

"He recognized she was drunk, but you did not," Strickland said.

Snelgrove agreed, telling the court the woman was able to walk and talk normally and that detected only a faintsmell of alcohol on her breath.

He also defended his decision not to tell dispatch he had a young woman in his squad car and was driving her home, saying he didn't consider it a police duty.

"You didn't inform [dispatch] she was in the car because you didn't want them to know," Strickland suggested. "You saw there was potentially an opportunity here to be with this woman."

"No, sir," Snelgrove replied.

Strickland then asked, if the woman was so enthusiastic about having sex with him, why she didn't appear to change positions throughout the act, which Snelgrove said lasted anywhere from eight to 10 minutes.

"She would have been moving in little ways," Snelgrovesaid. "She would have been moaning."

Defence counsel intended to call another witness Monday,a toxicologist and expert on alcohol's effect on consciousness who testified in previous trials. However, Piercey said the expert witness has since died, and instead played a recording ofhis previous testimony.

The witness, Dr. Peter Mullen,said it's possible for a person to be blackout drunk and experience gaps in consciousness while still appearing sober to an outside observer.

Counsel is expected to give its closing statements Wednesday.

It's the third trial for the same charge for Snelgrove. A verdict in 2017was overturned due to a judge's error. Asecond proceeding ended in a mistrial in September, also due to a judge's error.

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