A Yukon judge has found a Whitehorse man guilty of sexually assaulting a woman while she was sleeping.

Judge Karen Ruddy released her written decision on Feb. 8, thus convicting Harold Hans Harry.

Before getting to her reasons, Ruddy addressed the evidence.

The offence dates back to April 5, 2018. Harry and the woman took a cab to to the home of an individual known by both parties.

Harry and the complainant went into the basement and began drinking alcohol.

The complainant said she fell asleep – only to be woken up by Harry touching her in a sexual way.

Harry claimed any of the sexual activity was consensual. He added everything ended when the complainant refused to remove her clothes.

He said she left the residence afterward.

Ruddy said she has “serious concerns” about Harry’s recollection of events.

The convicted man told the court he had been binge-drinking for multiple days, starting on April 1, 2018. He said he may have had one shot of vodka before he met the woman that day.

“He was adamant that he was not impaired when he encountered the complainant and his memory was not affected at all,” Ruddy said in the decision.

She felt Harry’s recollection of meeting the complainant to be “strikingly bizarre.”

She pointed out Harry went to purchase a bottle of vodka at a downtown off-sales outlet and asked the cashier to call a taxi.

Harry told the court he got into the front seat, looked back and saw the woman in the rear seat. He felt she had “hopped in.”

He testified he could not remember if he had spoken with her during the ride in the taxi.

Ruddy said there was no relationship of note between either party.

“There was certainly no relationship between them that would make it reasonable to expect that the complainant would hop into Mr. Harry’s cab without his permission or any prior discussion, or that Mr. Harry would simply accept her presence in the cab and allow her to accompany him without asking a single question as to what she was doing there,” Ruddy wrote.

She felt that Harry’s story demonstrated that he had neither a clear nor sober memory of the incident.

She did not feel his testimony on how much he drank with the woman to be reliable either.

She pointed out he gave conflicting evidence about how much both he and the complainant drank in the basement, as well as how much he drank after the woman had left.

She added that Harry told the RCMP, in his statement, that he had no memory of the incident because he was drunk. Harry told police he was drunk during the interview more than once.

Ruddy felt Harry was telling the truth to police when he said he had no memory of the incident.

“I conclude that I do not believe his evidence,” she said in the decision.

“Nor for much the same reason, does his evidence raise a reasonable doubt.”

She clarified that this does not mean Harry must automatically be found guilty. She now has to consider if the Crown had proved that a sexual assault had taken place.

The complainant testified that she had been hung over when she met Harry. She decided to go with Harry for multiple reasons, being the promise of alcohol and a place to sleep. She said she had up to four shots of vodka and went to sleep.

“The complainant testified in a straightforward manner,” Ruddy said in the decision. “She was not shaken on cross-examination and did not shy away from unflattering evidence.”

Ruddy felt the woman was telling the truth. She felt the complainant’s reasons to accompany Harry made sense.

She explained leaving with Harry would give the woman a chance to drink to “take the edge off her hangover” and give what she thought would be a safe space to sleep.

“I do not find the complainant’s explanation of why she went with Mr. Harry to be suspect,” she said in the decision.

The judge accepted the woman’s evidence. She concluded that the complainant did fall asleep and she did not consent to any sexual activity.

She thus convicted Harry on one count of sexual assault.