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Victim 'vindicated' as her ex-cop rapist loses appeal

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Destiny Douglas says she was “vindicated” when Ontario’s highest court upheld the sexual conviction Tuesday against her rapist — former Toronto Police officer Roy Preston.

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The Ontario  Court of Appeal dismissed Preston’s appeal of his 2018 conviction and upheld his three-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting the security guard.

Preston and Douglas were working for the same security company and attended a barbecue and bonfire on Manitoulin Island in northern Ontario on July 31, 2015. He was 46 and her supervisor while Douglas was 19.

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Roy Preston is pictured in a 2005 file photo. (Toronto Sun)
Roy Preston is pictured in a 2005 file photo. (Toronto Sun)

She testified that Preston groped her breast when they went to retrieve firewood. After 2 a.m., he entered the trailer where she was sleeping on a sofa and committed a lengthy sexual assault.

She repeatedly shouted, “No,” demanded he stop and wept. Preston never testified but his lawyer’s position was the sex was consensual.

The defence’s only witness was another security company employee, Margit Vadaszi, who testified she heard nothing. She slept in the same trailer 4.5 metres away from Douglas, separated only by a plastic curtain that didn’t touch the floor.

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The defence asserted the judge should have acquitted due to a lack of evidence.

“I was definitely scared for my life,” recalled Douglas, who lifted the publication ban on her identity. “I taped a warning (after the groping) because I wanted to document it in case anything did happen to me.

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“My father and so many police officers in my family advised me to do so. That’s why I did this,” said Douglas, who will study to become a paralegal in Sudbury this fall.

“This is such a relief. It was very heartening to hear when (Justice David Paciocco) said this was ‘a very powerful case of sexual assault,'” added Douglas.

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“I am so vindicated now,” she said.

In her judgment, Madam Justice Mary Lou Benotto said the trial judge’s reasons were “thorough” and explaained the path to conviction.

“The appellant says it’s implausible that if an assault  occurred, no one would have heard anything given the complainant’s testimony,” said Benotto.

“We don’t agree,” said Benotto. “The trial judge could have arrived at the verdict based on his reasons. He accepted the complainant’s testimony.”

Preston, 50, lost his job as a police officer after he was convicted of assaulting Said Jama Jama and sentenced to 30 days in jail in 2005.

spazzano@postmedia.com

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