The trial involving a charge of sexual assault against Whitehorse resident Dion Roberts continued Wednesday, with the complainant testifying.

Justice Leigh Gower is presiding over the Yukon Supreme Court jury trial.

Before yesterday’s proceedings began, the 30-year-old Roberts’ defence team cross-examined the testimony the complainant’s roommate gave Tuesday.

The roommate’s name cannot be published because it could identify the complainant.

Benjamin Bruce Warnsey led the line of questioning, asking the roommate when she had moved out of the residence she’d shared with the complainant. She said it was in late April or early May of 2016.

He asked if the complainant had been drinking with the purpose of getting drunk on the night of Feb. 8, 2016, the night of the alleged offence. She said she was not, but did after the incident.

She said there were empty liquor bottles laying around, adding she would often be awakened when her roommates came home from a bar.

Warnsey asked why she didn’t call the RCMP or gather her roommates and confront the unwanted guest after she woke up finding a man in her bed when she had gone to bed alone.

She had given testimony previously that she had been woken up that night twice by feeling someone in bed with her. On both occasions, she demanded the man to leave her room.

The roommate explained that she was not so concerned because the man said he was in the wrong room.

Warnsey asked why she would text her roommates to be quiet when she is sleeping, but not text that there is a strange man in the residence.

The roommate explained that this was a similar experience to a residence for a post-secondary institution.

People would tend to walk into a room drunk, ask for someone who is not there, then just leave when they realize it’s the wrong room, she said.

Warnsey asked if she had done anything to lock her room after the second time she’d been awakened. She said she did not put anything down to block the door.

He asked why she would do that, yet lock the bathroom door when she took a shower. She responded this was purely out of habit.

Warnsey asked if the roommate was embellishing details in any way to support her friend. She said she was not, and was just recounting what happened.

Mark Andre Reynolds, Roberts’ other lawyer, asked if the roommate could smell alcohol on the unwanted visitor’s breath. She said she could.

Reynolds pointed to a statement she made to the police that she didn’t think this undesired visitor was drunk. She clarified that he didn’t seem intoxicated, but that she could smell alcohol.

Reynolds pointed to the statement again, noting she’d said she had not smelled alcohol that night. The roommate repeated she could smell alcohol, and more details of that night came back to her as she talked about it.

Reynolds said the dwelling was a hard place to live in, as it was a “party house.” He asked if either of her housemates would clean up empty bottles of alcohol.

The roommate said they wouldn’t clean up empties.

Reynolds asked how much had been consumed based on the empties. The roommate said the drinking was most likely done at the bar. As for how difficult it was to live there, she said she felt safe.

“It was never unsafe,” she told the court.

The complainant’s testimony was split between Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s proceedings.

She said she had woken up due to a sensation of being groped. She rolled over, looked to the left and saw a man, she testified.

She did not remember if anything was said, but not long after rolling over, she froze up completely. She felt crippling anxiety, was shaking, and did not know what to do.

The man climbed on top of her, she told the court. He moved her hands above her head.

At that point, she said, she believed he had to have taken off her leggings. The sexual encounter began not long after.

“It happened really quickly,” she said.

After about five or six minutes, she was able to regain her senses, and she pushed him off of her, she testified. She told him to get off of her three times. The third time, she pushed him away.

“I felt like I shouldn’t have had to do that,” she said.

Once free, she told the court, she went to the roommate’s room.

Crown counsel Amy Porteous asked why it took so long to react.

The complainant said it was because she had frozen, and had never felt emotions so powerful before. She explained that inside her mind, she was “freaking out” over being powerless over what was happening to her.

She said she did not ask for this to occur, did not want it to happen, and that the man did not ask for consent.

After being pushed off, the complainant said, Roberts just laid down. Both stayed there for about 20 seconds.

She used this time to collect herself. She testified she felt gross and scarred.

When she left to go into her roommate’s room, she explained she didn’t know why she had chosen that person as opposed to another woman living there. The roommate was not in her room; she was taking a shower. The complainant laid on the bed and started crying.

She said she knows the roommate did confront Roberts and got him to leave, but she did not see it first-hand. She would later fall asleep on the roommate’s bed.

The complainant would have to go to work later that day. She eventually went to Whitehorse General Hospital accompanied by the roommate and a friend.

She did not see Roberts again that day, but received five text messages, and he called twice. She did not respond, and blocked him.

The first texts were two hours after he’d left the residence, court was told. She testified that earlier that night, when they were socializing at the residence, they had exchanged numbers with the intention of keeping in touch. She said there were no romantic overtones.

Cross-examining her, Warnsey asked about the leggings she’d worn to bed and how they came off. She said she doesn’t remember, but knows she did not remove them.

He asked if they were hard to take off, or if they clung to skin. She said they are not difficult to take off, and she found them on the floor in the morning.

Warnsey asked if she remembered where Roberts’ hand was before the groping. She said she did not, and that she’d been asleep at that time.

Warnsey asked if she had consumed enough alcohol to have blacked out. She responded she had not, and that it was not possible for her, with the amount she had consumed.

She testified to have had 10 beers and three shots.

When Warnsey asked if more than 10 beers had been consumed, she said it could have been 11.

He asked if it was fair to say she was really drunk. She said yes, but added she had not blacked out; she could talk, and her memory was unaffected.

Warnsey asked if she was resisting the advances. She said she had frozen, was immobile and didn’t know what to do.

He asked her how her arms were moved over her head. She said it was by the wrist, and that Roberts had used both hands.

When the lawyer asked her if her eyes were open or closed, she said she didn’t remember.

Warnsey asked if she had initiated the sexual encounter; she said she had not.

He asked if, at that point, she had voiced an objection.

She said she had not, because she was frozen, but later demanded that he stop on three occasions before pushing him off her.

The trial is set to continue until Friday.