Trial begins for man accused of sexually assaulting St. Albert child

Note to readers: This story contains details of testimony about the alleged sexual assault of a child.

A trial began this week for Donald Dupuis, a former St. Albert resident who, in summer 2022, was charged with sexually assaulting a St. Albert child.

On Monday, Dupuis pleaded not guilty to a charge of sexual interference for offences alleged to have taken place over three years, starting in 2015. A 12-member jury will hear the evidence.

Crown prosecutor Benjamin Wiebe has called three witnesses to the stand. They include the complainant, a St. Albert teen who alleges Dupuis assaulted her when she was between roughly six to eight years old, as well as the complainant’s parents.

The Gazette cannot name the complainant or her parents because of a publication ban on any information that may identify them.

On Monday, court saw video of the child recounting to a St. Albert constable the alleged sexual assaults.

The child attended court via video. She had with her a stuffed animal, and the head of a support dog was cradled in her lap.

She told the court Dupuis — a neighbour and worker at the townhouse complex where the family lived — pushed her into her bedroom closet, put his hands down her pants and fondled her.

She testified Dupuis did this several times when he lived near the family, and either one or both of her parents were in the home during each event. Later the abuse included kissing her, she claimed.

The family moved to a different home in St. Albert where the abuse continued when Dupuis made occasional visits, the child alleged.

The complainant said the abuse made her withdrawn. She began hiding in her room, fearful that she would encounter Dupuis if she stepped outside. She became more easily frustrated and was frequently upset. She stopped talking to her parents and friends, she claimed.

She told court she remembers quietly weeping in her room after the abuse, feeling scared, angry, confused and sad.

During the abuse, she said, “I felt like my throat was clogged. I could tell I was trying to scream, but nothing would come out.”

The complainant said she did not tell her family about the abuse until summer 2022. She opened up to a friend about the experience, and the friend encouraged her to go to the police, she said.

Dupuis’s lawyer, Derek James Anderson, questioned the complainant’s memory of certain events, such as whether she started to become moodier and more withdrawn when she was a child or after she entered early adolescence. She said it happened when the alleged assaults began — and during early adolescence.

He asked her if she made the complaint because she and her parents didn’t like Dupuis.

“When I first met [Dupuis], I didn’t have a problem, neither did my parents,” she said. “Once the incidents started to occur, I started to resent or hate him. My parents didn’t start to hate or resent him until I told my mom that he did something to me, and then it got taken to this court.”

The complainant’s mother took the stand on Tuesday.

She told the court Dupuis would sometimes come into the house to do repairs in the family’s home. She said she didn’t know whether Dupuis had a key to the house, and she “didn’t have much of a choice” whether she let him in the house to do repairs.

The family saw Dupuis almost every day because he lived close, the mother said.

At one time, the family inherited a pregnant cat. They gifted Dupuis some kittens, which the mother claimed he used to entice the complainant to visit his home.

“One of his things was collecting teddy bears,” the mother said. “He was always wanting to give kids teddy bears and toys.”

She testified she observed Dupuis trying to sit near children on some patio furniture at the family’s home, and he seemed to try and “single out” the complainant, which made her uncomfortable.

When they moved to a new house, Dupuis helped them move and stopped by three or four times over the span of seven years.

She said after the incidents, her daughter started wearing darker clothes, cutting out groups of people, and even attempted suicide several times.

On Wednesday, Anderson cross-examined the mother. He asked her whether the daughter interacted with neighbours who lived in Dupuis’s home before Dupuis moved into the area, when the daughter’s mood changes started and about the location of a sword that the daughter alleged belonged to Dupuis.

The mother said she had no memory of seeing a sword in Dupuis’s home — but she may have seen one at Dupuis’s parents’ home, which was nearby.  (Dupuis moved in with his parents for a period while the family still lived in the home where they first encountered Dupuis.)

The complainant’s father also testified on Wednesday morning.

The father said that he saw Dupuis every day because they lived in close proximity and because Dupuis would sometimes knock on the family’s door.

Early on in the family’s relationship with Dupuis, the father recalled that Dupuis would occasionally ask for hugs from the family’s children.

“In the beginning I thought nothing of it,” the father said.

However, he grew irritated with Dupuis when Dupuis would ask to speak to the children privately.

“In the beginning he’d come in and give the kids a little hug, but it was always my daughter, never to the boys,” he said. “Sometimes he wouldn’t even acknowledge them. It just started to bug me.”

He described how his daughter became “a completely different person” shortly before the family moved out of the home nearby where Dupuis lived. In particular, she seemed afraid of men, he said.

He recalled an incident where the daughter followed him into a dirt-floored storage space underneath the family’s home when Dupuis was nearby.

“She would rather be in the mud under the house than anywhere near Donny,” he said.

During cross-examination, the father said he received little information regarding his daughter’s accusations as he was advised by police not to talk to her about the alleged incidents.

Anderson questioned the father about the high levels of crime and disorder reported near where the family lived when they first met Dupuis. He also asked the father to recall how long Dupuis lived on his own before he moved in with his parents, which the father could not remember.

The trial is scheduled to continue until Friday. Visit stalbertgazette.com for updates.