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Alleged sexual abuse victim describes bitter arguments with secret husband, Sudbury track coach

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A woman accusing a well-known track coach of sexually assaulting her when she was a child revealed for the first time she held a knife to his throat during a bitter argument while they were married.

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“We struggled,” recalled the woman during cross-examination Tuesday in the sexual assault trial of David Case of Sudbury. “I somehow got on top of him and I held a knife to his throat. I don’t know how I grabbed the knife. I remember being on top of him with a knife and not having the courage to kill him.”

The woman, whom Case coached in the 1980s, was secretly married to him. She said she was about to break off with him for good in early 1993 when Case, who was headed to Toronto for a training event, unexpectedly returned to their apartment.

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The now-adult woman, who testified Monday she had been controlled and emotionally bullied by Case during their relationship in addition to being sexually assaulted three times as a minor, said she and the accused got into a big argument when he noticed bags containing her things near the door.

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After the incident in which she held the knife to his throat, the woman said Case then left for Toronto and she got on a bus to northwestern Ontario to get away. She later divorced case.

It was the first time the woman brought up the knife incident. She did not bring it up in her statement to Greater Sudbury Police or at the preliminary hearing.

Case, 57, is facing three counts of sexual assault and two counts of simple assault concerning his relationship with the female. The alleged sexual assaults, the trial heard Monday, occurred in a dorm at a track meet in southern Ontario and on the return bus trip home, and in a hotel room in downtown Sudbury.

On Tuesday, the woman described a serious hand injury she suffered in the late 1980s when she said Case, during an argument, threw her against a screen door and one of her hands went through the glass.

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“There was a large piece of glass stuck in my hand,” she recalled. “I pulled it out. There was still a piece stuck. There was blood everywhere in our front entrance. I managed to get a towel. By the time I got to hospital, it was completely soaked.”

The woman said she needed surgery to repair tendon damage, continues to deal with numbness in the hand and has a three-inch scar to show where the tendon was repaired.

On Monday, the woman said on two occasions in Sudbury during arguments, Case ordered her to strip naked and he locked her out of their apartment. On one occasion, she said it was about -15 Celsius outside their ground-level apartment.

“I was standing at the door,” she said. “He pushed me outside. I landed on the snow down the steps. It was dark. It was nighttime. I was so cold. I started banging on the door. Eventually, he came to the door and opened up.”

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On Tuesday, during cross-examination by defence lawyer Nick Xynnis, the woman said her feet froze during the time outside.

“I just wanted it over,” she said through tears. “I apologized for whatever I did.”

The other incident involved an argument in an upper-floor apartment at a different building. The woman said she hid behind a fire door for about one hour so no one would catch her naked. Case eventually allowed her to return to the unit.

The woman said that when she went to the funeral of a family member in northwestern Ontario, Case called the police to claim she had stolen a pair of his shorts.

When asked by Xynnis why she never stood up to Case, the woman responded the accused controlled so many aspects of their relationship, including finances and not allowing her to go out on her own.

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Xynnis upset the woman when he suggested her hatred of Case was behind the sexual assault allegations. He suggested she was still angry that Case squandered what little money — most of earned by her — they had.

“Mr. Case wasted a good deal of your youth and you are still upset with him?” he asked the woman.

“I definitely feel my youth was wasted to some degree,” she replied. “I definitely regret not listening to my mom … My mom was extremely supportive of everything I did.

“He had caused so many problems (at the family home), she asked me to leave. She asked me never to come back until he was out of my life, until I made the decision not to be with him.”

The woman’s mother, meanwhile, testified Tuesday via closed-circuit television from northwestern Ontario.

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The mother said that in the beginning when the family recruited Case to be her daughter’s track coach, “I thought everything was going fine. He seemed to know what he was doing and we needed a coach.”

The mother said things changed not long after.

“It changed with (the daughter) because I felt she was very, very quiet,” said the mother. “I would ask her different questions and she wouldn’t give any answers. ‘Everything is fine. Everything is fine.’ But, as a mother, you get to know your daughter and there was something wrong. I couldn’t put my finger on it.”

The mother said that when a male friend of her daughter visited the family home, the man was almost struck by a passing vehicle when he left for the night.

“A car came racing down the street and I got a good look,” she said. “It was David Case.”

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The mother said because Case has a very distinctive voice, the family home would often get women and others calling asking for her daughter when she visited.

“I assumed it was David Case putting other people up to calling,” she said.

The mother said she also got a call out of the blue from the former Sudbury Memorial Hospital that her daughter was to undergo surgery (for the injured hand) and she said it scared her. Rushing to the hospital, she saw Case standing in the hallway and it made her mad.

“He never bothered to tell us where she was, what happened,” said the mother. “What kind of person does that? … I was angry. I was devastated. I could have done something nasty at the time to him.”

Another upsetting incident, said the mother, occurred when she and her daughter were in northwestern Ontario attending a family member’s funeral when they got a phone call about 3 a.m. She said the caller identified himself as the police and he was looking for her daughter. The mother said she immediately hung up and the caller never did call back. She said that indicated to her who had made the call.

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“It was David Case looking for (my daughter),” she said. “It definitely was him. There was no one else looking for (her). I was extremely upset and people in my family were upset where I was staying.”

The mother said when she and her daughter returned to Sudbury, she told her “enough is enough. I have had enough with this guy. I don’t want anymore to do with him. I will leave it up to you.”

The mother also said she never knew her daughter was secretly married to Case, only learning about it after she intercepted a note to her daughter delivered by a young boy who then ran down the street. She said she followed the boy to a parking lot and saw a car pull out with Case behind the wheel.

The trial continues Wednesday.

hcarmichael@postmedia.com

Twitter: @HaroldCarmichae

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