Warning: This story contains details of an alleged sexual assault.
An Island junior hockey player accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl has been acquitted.
Kenneth Boychuk, who played for the Nanaimo Buccaneers at the time, was accu sed by the girl, then 17, of going to her home uninvited and sexually assaulting her on Jan. 31, 2023.
She described a “savage non-consensual assault,” B.C. Supreme Court Justice Douglas Thompson said when he delivered his not-guilty verdict in Nanaimo.
According to the girl, who cannot be named due to a publication ban, she began messaging Boychuk in late January after they matched on a dating app.
They planned to hang out together on Valentines Day. The girl stayed home from school on Jan. 31 and sent Boychuk a Snapchat message. Shortly after the message, he showed up at her home unannounced, she said.
“When she opened the door for him, she says, he dragged her to her bedroom, slapped her to the point of unconsciousness, choked her, spat on her and sexually assaulted her vaginally, anally and orally,” Thompson said in a review of testimony.
The judge said, however, he found inconsistencies between the teen’s statement to police shortly after the incident and her testimony in court, saying she manufactured “exaggerated and false narrative details” based on speculation.
“I want it clearly understood that I’m not making a positive finding that the alleged sexual assault did not happen. But the evidence leaves me with significant uncertainty about which parts of the complainant’s evidence can be counted on as reliable,” he said.
The girl initially told police a bruise on the back of her right knee was “random,” but in court she said it was the result of hooking her leg around a wall while Boychuk dragged her to her bedroom.
Confronted by the inconsistency in court, she said the idea that the bruise came from hooking her leg around a wall came from a conversation with a forensic nurse after the incident. “It is a narrative detail that sounded compelling when first relayed, but considering all of the evidence, I doubt it’s true,” Thompson said.
The judge said the inconsistencies created doubt in his mind about the accuracy of the complainant’s evidence about the alleged assault.
