Article content
The testimony of a young woman who alleges she was sexually assaulted by a Montreal doctor while she was seeking to experiment sexually with a woman alone was supported Monday by the complainant’s boyfriend at time.
The complainant testified over the course of two days last week, alleging she was raped by Stephan Probst, 46, at his penthouse on Aug. 28, 2020. She said she went to the penthouse after meeting Wendy Devera, 30, through an online dating site.
Article content
The complainant told Quebec Court Judge Suzanne Costom that she made it clear to Devera that she only wanted to experiment with a woman and did not want to have sex with a man because she was in a relationship with the man who testified on Monday.
The complainant alleges she was drugged before she was sexually assaulted, possibly through a drink Probst prepared for her.
Probst and Devera are charged with sexual assault with help from another person.
Besides having worked at the Jewish General Hospital, Probst is listed as an assistant professor at McGill University. On Friday, the school said it would not comment on his current status at McGill “in accordance with Quebec privacy laws.”
The complainant’s identity is protected by a publication ban, which means the name of the man who was her boyfriend at the time cannot be published.
The man, who is 26 now, said he and the complainant were living together “for about a year” when she met Devera through the dating site. He said he was aware on the night in question that the complainant was going to meet with Devera but he did not know that a man would be present.
Article content
He said he was OK with his girlfriend seeking to experiment with women.
“She was curious. It didn’t bother me because she said it was just for pleasure. It didn’t bother me because I knew I wouldn’t lose her this way,” the man said while answering questions from prosecutor Delphine Mauger.
When Mauger asked the witness if there had been similar conversations about whether he was OK with his girlfriend having sex with other men, he said: “I don’t remember if we had conversations like that.”
He also recalled spending time at his apartment with his brother after his girlfriend headed off to meet with Devera. Sometime later that night, he said, his girlfriend called him from an Uber. He said she was crying and told him she would be home soon. He was waiting for her outside when the Uber arrived.
“I had to hold her all the way to the door,” he said. “She was crying. It was crying that you don’t see often. It was out of control. She had difficulty breathing. It took a while before she could communicate with me.”
The witness said that shortly after they entered their apartment, his girlfriend calmed down enough to tell him that she had been “attacked.”
“It was brief. It was enough for me. I didn’t want to know more,” the man said, adding that he then asked his brother what he should do. “He said it was simple: ‘Call the police.’”
Montreal police officers brought the woman to a hospital to undergo tests. Within hours of the alleged sexual assault, samples of her blood and urine arrived at the provincial medico-legal laboratory on Parthenais St.
Édith Viel, a toxicologist, the next witness to testify on Monday, said she found alcohol, ecstasy and sertraline, an antidepressant, in the woman’s blood and urine.
Viel said she found the woman’s blood-alcohol concentration to be at .052 per 100 ml of blood. The toxicologist said this is the equivalent of two drinks, or when the average person starts to feel less inhibited. She also said alcohol can make ecstasy’s effects feel stronger.
Recommended from Editorial
Share this article in your social network