Lethbridge man found guilty of sexual assault after Feb. trial

By Delon Shurtz on April 3, 2021.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com

A Lethbridge man was not always truthful when he testified at his sexual assault trial in February, and his evidence was intended “to paint himself in a better light with the court,” a judge ruled Wednesday.
Justice Vaughan Hartigan said Ivan Iain Palmer was not a credible witness, and the Lethbridge Court of Queen’s Bench judge found Palmer guilty of one count of sexual assault.
During his trial the female victim, who can’t be identified under a court-ordered publication ban, testified she and her girlfriend were at Palmer’s northside residence Nov. 2, 2019, where they visited, watched TV and drank heavily. Eventually the woman became so intoxicated she had to be helped to a couch in Palmer’s bedroom, where she passed out and her girlfriend and Palmer’s wife covered her with a blanket.
The woman testified that when she woke up later, someone was touching her, and her pants and underwear had been pulled down to her ankles.
At first she thought she might have dreamed or imagined it, or that her girlfriend had touched her, but when her girlfriend denied it, the woman realized it must have been Palmer because he was the only person in the room other than herself.
Palmer denied touching the woman, and testified that sometime after she had been placed on the couch, he went to the kitchen to heat up some food, and returned to the bedroom where he sat on the corner of his bed near the couch and turned on the TV. He said the woman awoke with the noise of NETFLIX starting, and, with a panicked look on her face, asked, “where am I, what’s going on?”
Defence maintains there is reasonable doubt as to whether the woman actually felt anyone touch her, and if someone had, it could have been any of the other adults in the home, particularly the woman’s girlfriend. Lethbridge lawyer Greg White suggested the complainant may even have pulled down her own pants.
“She was so drunk she could have done it herself,” he said during his closing arguments Feb. 9.
Hartigan acknowledged the woman’s level of intoxication, but said she saw Palmer standing over her after she was touched, and he was the only person in the bedroom at the time. Hartigan concluded Palmer was the only one who could have pulled down the woman’s pants, touched her inappropriately for a sexual purpose and without her consent.
Although Hartigan was prepared to hear sentencing arguments from the Crown and defence, White requested a pre-sentence report be prepared, and the matter was adjourned until April 12 to schedule a date for sentencing. The pre-sentence report will provide the judge and lawyers with Palmer’s background and personal circumstances to help determine a fit sentence.

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