Former head of nuclear medicine at Jewish General convicted of sexual assault

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The former head of nuclear medicine at the Jewish General Hospital and his girlfriend have been found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman.

During a hearing at the Montreal courthouse on Thursday, Quebec Court Judge Suzanne Costom said parts of Stephan Probst’s own testimony in the trial, where the 46-year-old was charged with sexual assault along with Wendy Devera, 30, met the legal requirement to convict a person of the crime.

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The complainant could be heard sobbing in the courtroom after Costom delivered her decision to convict both of the accused.

The judge said the case boiled down to Probst’s version of what happened versus that of the young woman who testified that she only wanted to have a sexual experience with another woman on Aug. 28, 2020, and never consented to have sex with Probst. During the trial, the woman said she met Devera through a dating app called Bumble and arranged to meet her at what turned out to be Probst’s apartment.

Costom also said she believed the victim’s claim that she was drugged while she was at Probst’s residence. The victim said she felt she lost control of her body before Probst raped her in his bedroom while she was performing oral sex on Devera. The Montreal police later took the victim to a hospital where she was found to have a small quantity of MDMA in her body.

The issue of how the MDMA ended up in the woman’s body was a key part of the trial. Probst said he offered it to the woman and that she accepted it. The woman said she believed it was slipped into a drink she was offered. A police officer who took the woman’s statement wrote in his notes that she told him that she accepted GHB from Probst.

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Costom said she found the victim’s testimony about the drug to be “logical.”

“The testimony is convincing and the court believes her,” Costom said.

The judge also noted there were some contradictions in the details of the young woman’s testimony, about what happened where in Probst’s apartment, but that the contradictions could be attributed to the passage of time.

“The court is convinced her testimony was honest and reliable,” the judge said adding the defence relied on “stereotypes” when it came to the issue of consent.

For example, Probst testified that at one point the woman told him she “couldn’t” have sex with him and not that she didn’t want to. He also said that at one point she consented because all three were on his bed and naked, before he penetrated her, and that considered that to be “intimate.”

The judge highlighted what she considered to be a key moment in Probst’s testimony while he was being cross-examined by prosecutor Jérôme Laflamme.

“Mr. Probst confirmed that (the victim) never gave her verbal consent (to being penetrated by him,)” the judge recalled while adding that when the prosecutor asked Probst if she said anything at all he replied with: “I don’t remember.”

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According to an undated article posted on the Jewish General Hospital’s website, Probst “previously led” the Division of Nuclear Medicine. He is also listed on McGill University’s website as an assistant professor in the department of diagnostic radiology.

During the trial, the complainant testified that she was in a relationship with a man and only wanted to experiment sexually with a woman. She said she rejected Probst when he tried to kiss her in his spa while she was kissing Devera. Later on, the woman testified, Probst raped her twice; once while she was having sex on his bed with Devera and a second time after she got dressed to leave.

Costom said there was reasonable doubt as to whether Probst raped the woman the second time, as she was preparing to leave his apartment. There were some contradictions in her testimony on that specific element and Probst denied outright that he had sex with the woman as she was about to leave.

Devera did not testify in her defence during the trial. The victim said that while Probst was raping her, Devera touched her and said things like: “You like this. It’s okay.”

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“The court is convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Mrs. Devera participated actively in the three-way relation,” Costom said. “The evidence proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the victim did not consent to be in a three-way relation and that what started as a consensual relation between (the victim) and Devera became non-consensual when Mr. Probst joined in.”

“There was a lot of emotion,” prosecutor Delphine Mauger told reporters of the victim’s reaction to the decision. “It was not an easy trial, to testify and to be contradicted. It is the outcome of a long trial that lasted several years, I want to highlight her courage, her strength, her resilience, like all victims who make a complaint and have trust in the judicial system.

“The message sent is clear — only a ‘yes’ means yes. Measures have to be taken to establish the consent of a person for each sexual act at the moment of the sexual act.”

Probst and Devera were not detained throughout their trial and the Crown did not ask that they be detained while they await their sentences.

The case will enter the sentencing stage in September.

pcherry@postmedia.com

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