'I'm not backpedalling,' complainant insists at trial of lawyer Robert Regular
CBC
Warning: The content in this story involves allegations of sexual assault and the details may be disturbing to some.
In painstaking detail, defence lawyer Rosellen Sullivan walked her way through police statements, lawyer invoices and previous comments made by the sole complainant in the case against her client, Robert Regular, checking off her paper as she went.
Sullivan and Jerome Kennedy are representing Regular, who is also a longtime lawyer. Regular's sexual assault trial resumed Tuesday at Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court in St. John's.
The complainant — now in her mid-30s and whose identity is covered by a publication ban — did her best not to look Sullivan in the eye during cross-examination. Instead, she directed her answers toward the bench where Justice Vikas Khaladkar has been presiding.
"When I went to give my statements, I was honest," the woman said, after about two hours of questioning from Sullivan.
"I wasn't misleading in any way and if I did get things mixed up it was because of the trauma from this whole process."
Regular is accused of sexually assaulting the woman on four separate occasions, beginning in 2001, when she was 12. He is also facing one count of sexual interference as a result of that alleged incident.
She has testified that she met Regular while he was her mother's lawyer and was working to get her back into her mother's care from provincial child services.
Years later, she became a client of Regular's herself as she fought to keep her own children.
Since the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary began its investigation in 2020, the woman has made multiple statements to police. Sullivan relied heavily on those statements during cross-examination, as she compared discrepancies in the woman's retelling of the events.
Sullivan questioned how long the woman had been sober, and why the exact dates and ages in two police statements didn't match up. Also, why she wasn't consistent in telling police the exact moment when — and if — she cried and told her mother about the first alleged assault.
"I was being honest as best I could. I didn't want to leave anything out, I wanted to be honest. I was honest," the woman said.
"I know my timeline isn't accurate."
The woman said childhood trauma and past abuse have left her with gaps in her memory due to years of trying to repress them. Counselling has allowed her to remember more, she said.
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