Editor's note: The following story contains details heard in court that may be disturbing for some readers.
Cpl. Olekskii Silin’s fate is now in the hands of Justice Robert Gattrell.
The 44-year-old soldier’s trial for sexual assault and forcible confinement wrapped up with final submissions on Wednesday at the Ontario Court of Justice on Mulcaster Street in Barrie.
Gattrell is expected to render his final judgment in March.
Silin's charges relate to an incident on the evening of May 12, 2018 at CFB Borden, located about 20 minutes west of Barrie.
Silin and Elvira Jaszberenyi, a fellow Canadian Forces officer, had just returned from a rigorous training exercise at CFB Shilo in Manitoba.
Upon returning from Shilo, Silin briefly went first to Toronto to be with his wife and three young children, while Jaszberenyi, who is about 15 years older than the accused, went out for dinner with friends in Barrie. Both had arrived back at the base by 10 pm.
The trial examined what took place over the next two hours. More specifically, the charges relate to two minutes in a barracks' broom closet.
Silin says the couple had a brief, consensual sexual encounter; Jaszberenyi says she was forced into a dark, confined space and was sexually assaulted by a man whom she had considered a friend despite his forward and, at times, crude behaviour toward her, both in person and by text.
“It came out in evidence that they both had a crude sense of humour,” Silin’s lawyer, Mitchell Worsoff, said during his final submission.
Crown attorney Julie Janiuk conceded that the alleged victim and accused were friends, but said Silin took advantage of that friendship by forcing himself on Jaszberenyi, forcing her into the closet where he refused to let her leave until he was finished sexually assaulting her.
“She hit him on the top of his head,” Janiuk told the court of Jaszberenyi’s initial attempts to break free. “She said no three or four times.”
Worsoff summarized his case by saying his client did nothing wrong and that the events that took place just past midnight as May 12 gave way to May 13 was “a sexual encounter between two consenting adults.”
“If my client was more romantic, this wouldn’t be (a) sexual assault (trial),” Worsoff added.
The trial was unique.
First, for the fact that Canadian military authorities declined to prosecute, citing a lack of suitable personnel to pursue the matter despite Silin’s interview with CFB Borden police the day after the incident being submitted later as evidence.
Additionally, Jaszberenyi waived her right to anonymity that is typically granted to complainants in sexual-assault matters.
Proceedings took place over four separate days that were all spaced weeks apart. The complainant and the accused were present for the first three days of testimony, but both watched by video link on Wednesday.
During the trial, Janiuk used Silin’s interview with base authorities to press him about inconsistencies between his testimony and his original statements to military police. She also accused Silin of inventing parts of what happened on the night in question, saying his recounting on the stand was illogical and made little practical sense.
“You made up (your) story,” Janiuk told Silin last month while cross-examining him, “…to justify your behaviour later.
“She never made it to the stairs (to leave) because you pulled her into the broom closet,” Janiuk added.
Silin contended that Jaszberenyi willingly followed him into the closet – Worsoff compared it in his final submission to how a man would direct his partner on to the dance floor – after she had roused him from his bed to come meet him for a drink.
“She was flirting with me,” Silin testified, later adding that he could tell “by the way she looked at me” that Jaszberenyi was consenting to sex.
Jaszberenyi was clear in her earlier testimony that she was forced into the closet and Janiuk repeated that position during her final submission on Wednesday.
“He placed himself in front of the door, preventing her from leaving,” Janiuk told the court. “(Then) he became more angry and forceful.”
Jaszberenyi said the case is another example of the troubling culture of sexual impropriety in the Canadian military, which includes the case of Snowbird pilot, Maj. Steven Hurlbut, who is currently before the courts on a similar charge for which Silin awaits his fate.
Janiuk repeated that mantra on Wednesday.
“She was hesitant to come forward because of the atmosphere in the Canadian military,” Janiuk told Gattrell.
“(For a woman) to report a sexual assault in the military is taking a chance,” she added later in her submission.
Hurlbut’s case returns to court in Barrie next month.
