A former teacher and vice principal is accused of being intimate with a student 231 times over two years.
The alleged victim, who is now 22, testified in court today at Vernon Public School teacher Deborah Ashton’s retrial in B.C.
The 22-year-old is the prime witness in the case and accused his former elementary school teacher of being intimate with him more than 200 times during their two-year affair which started when he was in grade 7 and went on for two years.
Ashton is being tried again on charges of invitation to sexual touching, sexual interference of a person under 14 and sexual assault after her first trial in 2011 ended in a hung jury.
Under questioning from defence lawyer Terry La Liberte, the man said not all of their encounters were explicitly sexual, according to CBC News.
He said sometimes only kissing was involved, but 20 to 30 per cent of their intimacy involved intercourse, which took place in her car.
But the alleged victim’s truthfulness has been questioned after he couldn’t remember details about her car or even that she has a tattoo on her stomach.
He claimed that Ashton got the tattoo later, and that she was wearing a shirt during all of the encounters.
No one saw the two involved in sex acts, and the boy never told anyone about them until about two years after they ended.
Mr LaLiberte said to the man when he insisted he was telling the truth: ‘No, you’re not sir. You made this up at the basketball camp and this is how you got into this.
Yesterday he testified that Ashton, who was 37 when she allegedly started the relationship, told him she had to end their affair for fear her husband would find out.
The crown has added two more charges to Ashton and several witnesses to the case. She had pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The trial is scheduled to continue for another ten days.
