Closing arguments in teacher sex assault trial

Lawyers for the Crown and the defence presented their closing arguments Tuesday in the trial of a Toronto elementary teacher accused of having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old former student.

The Crown claimed Mary Gowans pointed the finger at the alleged victim in desperation, while the defence argued that the victim’s testimony was filled with “deliberate dishonesty and lies.”

Gowans, 42, has pleaded not guilty to the alleged sexual assault and sexual interference of the then-15-year-old boy from June 1, 2009 to Jan. 10, 2010.

Justice John McMahon is expected to deliver his verdict on Friday morning.  If found guilty, Gowans faces a maximum 10-year sentence for each offence.

McMahon questioned the Crown about the nature of the text messages between Gowans and the student who cannot be named.

The court heard the teen deleted all of the text messages the two exchanged. The court heard they exchanged more than 2,000 text messages over a year.

“If you have the smoking gun…why would you delete it?” McMahon asked.

“It’s my opinion he just didn’t think about it,” lawyer Soula Olver said.

Without the text messages, there is no evidence, defence lawyer Peter Brauti argued.

The Crown also claimed Gowans told the youth she wouldn’t tell his parents. He ended up telling his sister who told their mother about the alleged relationship. Gowans claims the teen texted her in the days following to apologize.

The teen’s mother told the court she was concerned by a text Gowans sent to her son in which she called him “babe.”

The teen, now 18, testified that he and Gowans “made out” while he babysat her two children. Gowans remained home during those times, he told the court.

He also volunteered to help Gowans run extracurricular activities at her school.

Gowans’ lawyer argued that the student was “rebuffed” and it “blew up on him.”

“She says he’s a nice kid who wants to join the running club and babysit. Meanwhile he’s saying all those rude and nasty things about her…you can say maybe she should have known better,” Brauti said.

“His story has the air of a fantasy about the hot French teacher…remember he thinks about these things all the time.”

When accusations of an inappropriate relationship with the boy were levelled against her, the Crown claims Gowans added “insult to injury — she accused the student of sexual assault.”

Gowans claimed the only sexual incident that occurred was unwanted on her part — when the boy, one of her former French students, touched her genital area. She said she told him to stop.

“How desperate for her to point the finger at the victim,” Olver told the court Tuesday.

The boy claims the touching wasn’t unwanted, but that Gowans changed her mind shortly after it happened.

Gowans said she was oblivious to the boy’s sexual desire for her.

The teen testified that Gowans showed him her breasts, including one time when she lost a running race and allegedly posed in a wet T-shirt as his reward.

Gowans told the court earlier this week that the accusations against her prompted her suspension by the school board. She later resigned, her marriage fell apart and she fell into depression.
 

CityNews reporter Cynthia Mulligan has been following the trial and tweeted developments from the courtroom on Monday. Read her updates below: