Trial begins for restaurant manager accused of sexually assaulting teen staff in Fergus

GUELPH – The trial of a former Fergus fast-food restaurant manager accused of sexually assaulting two teenage staff members in 2021 began in Guelph Superior Court on Monday.

The accused, 34-year-old Navpreet Nahar, pleaded not guilty to four charges stemming from 2021 allegations he sexually and inappropriately touched the high schoolers while working as their shift manager.

Wellington OPP charged Nahar in 2021-22 with sexually touching an underage person (interference), exploiting a young person by touching them sexually, and two counts of sexual assault.

The women, aged 15 and 16 at the time of the alleged offences, cannot be identified under a publication ban ordered by Justice Cynthia Petersen, standard in sexual assault cases.

The Advertiser is also not naming the restaurant to avoid identifying the women.

Three of the offences – sexually assaulting someone under 16 years old, sexually touching someone underage and sexual exploitation of a young person by someone in a position of trust or authority – carry maximum prison sentences of 14 years.

The second sexual assault charge, involving someone 16 or older, carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.

However, courts rarely impose maximums, reserving them for the most serious cases.

Prosecutor Stacey Hamilton called both complainants as the Crown’s key witnesses on May 11 in a case being argued on testimony alone. Such cases hinge on the credibility and reliability of witnesses, rather than video or physical evidence, to prove the Crown’s case.

One of the women testified Nahar repeatedly touched her buttocks when she was 15 years old and working at a sandwich counter at a Tower Street South restaurant between August and December 2021.

Now 20, the woman testified Nahar worked alongside her at the sandwich counter. She said he would pass prepared orders to drive-thu staff for bagging, then turn back and glide an open palm across her buttocks.

Nahar’s defence lawyer, Robert Christie, suggested the woman wouldn’t know what had touched her as she focused straight ahead and prepared sandwiches in a busy, cramped space where unintentional physical contact could be expected.

The woman also testified Nahar touched her shoulders without consent and on another occasion grabbed her waist to physically move her out of the way of a dish-washing sink.

The second woman, now 21, testified Nahar grabbed her breast for around five seconds while co-workers were present.

“I felt it and then I looked,” she said. “It had a grip to it.”

On several occasions, she said, he also touched her buttocks for six to eight seconds at a time, all while at the sandwich counter.

“I’m telling you it didn’t happen,” the defence lawyer argued, challenging the notion Nahar would have risked touching her that way in a busy restaurant with people around.

Christie watched the red hand tick away eight seconds on a courtroom clock.
“That’s a long time,” the lawyer said.

“I know,” the woman replied.

The woman also testified Nahar, in separate incidents, grabbed her waist to move her out of the way at the sandwich counter and grabbed her buttocks while she was mopping.

The incidents are alleged to have occurred between mid-August and late November 2021. She would have been 16 at the time.

Both women testified there were no cameras recording employee areas, aside from cash registers.

The first complainant reported the incidents to police at the end of 2021; the second didn’t come forward until spring 2022.

“We didn’t know it was sexual assault; we just thought he was being weird,” the woman said.

The woman testified she and her coworkers talked about Nahar’s behaviour, and following a conversation with her parents, she said, “It hit me, like, ‘Oh my God, this is real.’”

“You built this up over seven or eight months in your head and then you went to the police,” Christie argued.

The defence suggested the woman had inflated incidental contact and fabricated a story to help out the other woman.

“It beggars belief; he’s doing that in front of all these people,” Christie said.

He pointed to alleged inconsistencies between the woman’s testimony and a police statement in which she said she originally thought Nahar’s contact was accidental.

The woman argued brief portions of her statement were being cherry-picked and taken out of context.

“He didn’t have to touch me at all,” she said.

The judge-alone trial before Justice Petersen continues this week.