Soldier sexually assaulted sleeping spouse, she told military police

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A Halifax man and former soldier who allegedly sexually assaulted his domestic partner multiple times while she was sleeping, sometimes in the presence of young children, captured the episodes in images stored on a hard drive seized this fall by the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service, according to documents military police filed in court to get a warrant.

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He “had sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions while she was sleeping beginning in 2013 until the last known sexual assault in 2019,” Sgt. Taylor Baird wrote in information to obtain a warrant to conduct a forensic audit of the hard drive filed at Halifax provincial court.

The woman initially complained in March 2022 to the military police unit tasked with investigating serious and sensitive matters related to the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces.

None of her allegations have been tested in court and the man has not been charged in relation to the alleged sexual assaults.

Neither she nor her former partner, who left the Canadian Army in July 2022 as a corporal, can be identified as she’s an alleged victim of sexual assault.

She “discovered videos and pictures depicting the sexual assaults” while transferring data from his mobile phone to a shared portable hard drive, said the investigator. “Some of the media showed the presence of her children.”

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She complained to military police that her former partner “had been sexually assaulting her while she was sleeping for an unknown amount of time and recording it,” Baird said. “She was unsure how she was not aware of the assaults occurring and may have been drugged.”

The woman “recalled an incident where she had fallen asleep with her baby in her arms and (he) ejaculated on her, which she believes occurred in 2019,” Baird said, noting she “described another incident where she had woken up while (he) was ‘inside of her.’”

She also described “a quick one-second video of anal penetration,” found on the hard drive.

The woman told investigators that she first discovered the images some time in 2013 or 2014. When she confronted him about it, he allegedly “stated multiple times he would stop and seek help.”

But “he never did seek help, nor did the acts stop,” she told military police.

She also told military police about several photos she found in the hard drive that her ex had allegedly taken of the baby monitor while she was breast feeding her children. Other photos showed her asleep with her breasts exposed, “where on occasion one of her children were visible in the photos,” Baird said.

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She told investigators she hadn’t watched all the videos on the hard drive, describing it as “‘traumatizing,’ but believes there may be more of (him) sexually assaulting her.”

She met the man in 2013 while he was posted to CFB Borden in Ontario. They had four children together and moved to Halifax in 2018.

When her mother visited them in 2019, the couple “had been sleeping in separate bedrooms for several years,” Baird said.

But they slept together during her stay so the visitor could have a room.

While the alleged victim “was sleeping in the shared bedroom with one of her infants during the visit, she woke up to (her then partner) sucking her nipple and squeezing her breast with his hands ‘drinking my milk,’” she told investigators, noting she was “terrified and acted like she was stirring awake.”

A day or two later, she made him “aware that she knew what he had done,” Baird said.

The woman told investigators she never gave her former domestic partner “consent to touch or grope her while she was sleeping, and she was completely unaware that (he) was sexually assaulting her until she found the pictures and video on the hard drive. (She) is unsure how many videos she has, but there are a 100 or more movement pictures.”

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Her mother contacted Nova Scotia Child Welfare Services to complain about the behaviour of her daughter’s then spouse.

He told a social worker that he had sex with his partner “while she was sleeping, knowing it was wrong.”

After that, social workers advised him he “was no longer allowed back into the house for eight weeks and cannot visit the kids unsupervised.”

Her partner joined the military in March 2010, so he was in uniform during the period the alleged sex assaults took place.

After an investigation in 2022 by the military police, the man, now 33, was arrested for sexual assault. But the alleged victim was financially dependent on him and couldn’t find anywhere else to stay with her children, so she decided she no longer wanted to go ahead with the investigation, Baird said, noting the hard drive containing the images was returned to her.

However, the woman came back to military police in late July this year “requesting the file be re-opened and provided the hard drive,” said the investigator.

Since she requested the file be closed in 2022, the woman has joined the military “providing her and her kids with a guaranteed income and housing,” Baird said. “Furthermore, she is now in a new relationship and in a better situation to move forward with her original complaint.”

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Her ex’s “behaviour has been consistently escalating where she now feels unsafe in her house,” said the investigator.

He “has attempted to forcefully remove security cameras from (her) residence,” resulting in a mischief charge, Baird said.

He allegedly “texted her stating he knew how to enter her residence and ‘If I can’t have the boys, you can’t either.’”

She described how her ex would sometimes follow her in his vehicle, forcing her to call 911. He’s also filed “multiple reports” about her to the Canadian Forces Housing Agency, Halifax Regional Police, the RCMP, Child Welfare Services and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, in what she described as “an attempt to bring her down,” Baird said, noting the alleged victim said her ex “scares the s–t out of me.”

He’s facing two counts of mischief and is scheduled to appear in Dartmouth provincial court on Jan. 29, 2025, for election and plea.

Investigators seized a copy of the external drive containing the images of alleged sexual assaults from their own property room on Sept. 17. Documents detailing the reasons for the seizure were recently made public.

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While Baird planned to conduct a forensic examination of the external drive looking for evidence of sexual assault, assault, exposing genitals to a person under 16 and voyeurism, the man at the centre of his investigation does not appear to be facing any of those charges.

“This is an ongoing military police investigation; no further details will be released,” Kened Sadiku, who speaks for National Defence, said in an email.

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