Justice Catherine Dawson is now weighing her options in the sexual assault trial of former Regina high school teacher Corey Matthews.
She will bring down her verdict on January 21st.
This afternoon, lawyers gave their closing arguments.
The lawyer for Matthews, Barry Nychuk summed up his case by saying, “The true victim here is Corey Matthews.”
Nychuk says Matthews has found it impossible to get employment and his life has been ruined by the allegations against him.
Nychuk says the prosecution’s main witness lacked credibility gave contradictory testimony and at times made unbelievable allegations.
Amoung them, that he performed oral sex on Matthews in his truck, parked a block from Scott Collegiate during a busy noon hour with people milling around.
Nychuk says, it is illogical, and makes no sense.
He described the alleged victim as an unsavory witness, with a long criminal record, who has no respect for the justice system, and has no problem telling lies to authorities including police.
He told justice Dawson that to convict based on his testimony alone would be dangerous and contrary to the principal of reasonable doubt.
Nychuk told the court, “There is no corroborating evidence, no witnesses, no physical evidence and Mr. Mathews should not be convicted of these horrible crimes simply because the witness said so.”
Prosecutor, Connie Hottinger, told the court while her witness has a criminal past, and has a history of not being truthful, he told the truth about what happened with Matthews.
She says the witness has nothing to gain by lying and came forward knowing it would be difficult and he would be subject to an intense cross examination.
She says while some of the allegations don’t seem to make sense, that is not unusual in sexual assault cases, where committing such a crime makes no sense.
She says the alleged victim was credible, calm and did not embellish.
Mathews is charged with sexual assault and abusing a position of authority.
The alleged incidents occurred in 2006, when the student was about 15.
The witness told the trial he had sexual relations with Matthews on four occasions during a period of several weeks while he was one of Matthew’s students at Scott Collegiate.
During the trial, Matthews was described as a teacher who went above and beyond the call of duty for his students, many of whom were aboriginal and came from very troubled pasts.
He often drove them to and from school, helped organize a neighbourhood basketball program in North Central Regina, and re-established a basketball team at Scott Collegiate winning the city championship.
The school is in Regina’s North Central Neighbourhood with a large population of aboriginal students.