Warning: This article contains allegations of sexual assault. Anyone who is at risk of sexual violence or has experienced sexual violence can call the Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis 24-hour helpline at 1-800-265-7233.
GUELPH – A Puslinch man accused of sexually assaulting two teenage girls in the 1980s testified in his own trial on Wednesday.
Two women, Janice Klinetobe and Kristin Bax, testified earlier this year that Brian Cox sexually assaulted them in the late 1980s.
Cox has pleaded not guilty to two charges of sexual assault against Klinetobe, and to two charges of sexual assault and two of gross indecency against Bax, in connection with incidents between 1986 and 1991.
“The issue with these types of cases is consent,” said Cox’s defence lawyer Dean Paquette.
Cox said there was “100 per cent” consent each time he and Klinetobe had intercourse between 1988 and 1991, when she worked for him at BJ’s Auto Sales, a dealership he owned.
The first instance was in Quebec.
Cox and Klinetobe stayed overnight at a Montreal hotel for a car auction in 1988 – a trip they would make together several more times.
Cox testified to having consensual sex with Klinetobe at the hotel several times before returning to Ontario.
He was in his 30s and she was 18 at the time.
He said they continued to have sex upwards of four times per week, at his office and house, at hotels, and in vehicles, characterizing the relationship as “loving” and an “affair.”
Klinetobe previously testified she “froze” as Cox raped her on multiple occasions in Montreal, inside Cox’s office at the dealership, and at his Puslinch home.
The defence finished cross-examining Klinetobe on Wednesday earlier in the day before the 69-year-old Cox took the stand.
Klinetobe often said she couldn’t recall specifics surrounding events as the defence peppered her with questions about her time with Cox in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
“Is there a chance that you’re missing memory for reasons that you don’t know?” Paquette asked pointedly after several lines of questioning.
Trauma and the distance of time had left her with little recall, Klinetobe said.
Though she was unable to recall specifics about two alleged occasions of rape at Cox’s house, Klinetobe said she remembered the “act of [Cox] on me in the bed.”
“I remember the rape because that stays with your body,” Klinetobe said, adding, “I have a recollection of him penetrating me.”
On another occasion, Klinetobe said Cox raped her as she and a friend watched a movie in Cox’s bed.
“Brian crawled in the bed behind me and started touching me and he eventually penetrated me,” she said.
“She was rubbing my back and just doing what we did all the time (petting),” Cox testified about that night.
Before things went further, Cox said, he was confronted by Klinetobe’s friend who was in the bed with them.
Paquette challenged Klinetobe about returning to Cox’s residence, despite the alleged abuse, for dinner with him and his wife, to babysit their son, or for social gatherings and sporting events.
“I was scared to tell anyone,” Klinetobe said, adding Cox had told her to keep quiet.
“I just kept it all inside,” she said, adding it was how her 18-year-old mind responded.
“I was under his control … I had lost all control over my life.”
The defence played video clips from the early ’90s showing Klinetobe at sporting events and social gatherings where Cox was present.
When Paquette asked Cox if he ever forced Klinetobe to be there, Cox laughed, shook his head and said never.
Cox’s testimony is to continue on July 24.
