Encounter ‘not a proud moment’: officer

The intercourse he had with a woman after a party in Watson Lake last March was consensual,

The intercourse he had with a woman after a party in Watson Lake last March was consensual, RCMP Const. Graham Belak told a Whitehorse courtroom Thursday.

Belak, a 30-year-old former AHL hockey player, is one of two RCMP officers standing trial this week for sexually assaulting a woman at Belak’s home early on Mar. 8, 2009.

He took the stand in his defence, following former senior colleague Const. Shawn McLaughlin, 33, who was also charged in the incident that occurred when both officers were off-duty.

Since being charged last March following the allegations, both have been suspended with pay from active duty.

The woman said she was drugged and raped at Belak’s home.

The officers maintain the sex was consensual, they did not drug the woman, and that their alleged victim had made a series of sexual overtures to them beginning at the party where they met before going to Belak’s.

The officers did not know the woman, nor she the officers prior to the party, Justice Leigh Gower of the Yukon Supreme Court heard.

Once the three reached Belak’s residence, casual conversation turned to the subject of marital fidelity and the woman’s husband, according to both officers.

McLaughlin, who is also married, and Belak, who is a bachelor, testifed that the woman said her husband treated her poorly.

It was at that point Belak suggested that a way of getting back at her husband was to cheat on him, the court heard.

Crown prosecutor Robert Beck seized on that remark during his cross-examination of Belak.

“I would suggest the reason you brought up cheating was that you were trying to steer her into having sex with you and Shawn McLaughlin,” said Beck. “In the hopes she would pick you as the possible candidate to cheat with.”

Belak said that was a possiblity, but like McLaughlin before him, he denied the woman ever lost consciousness or that either of the officers forced themselves on her.

When asked directly, Belak and McLaughlin said the alleged victim is lying.

Beck asked Belak if he would think the story of a married woman agreeing to have three-way sex with two men she had just met at a party would be bizarre. Belak disagreed.

“I would say it was rare to hear a story like that, not bizarre,” Belak replied. “I think it happens more than people talk about.”

The constable appeared to regret his actions, but at the time said he didn’t think there was an issue of an off-duty officer sleeping with a married woman.

“It’s not a proud moment in my life, that’s for sure,” said Belak.

“Morally, I would say I probably shouldn’t have (taken part) ... because the two parties were married.”

When Beck asked him if he considered his actions “immoral,” Belak responded that he did not.