Sask. man's sexual assault conviction, sentence upheld after appeal
WARNING: The following story contains details of sexual assault.
The appeal of a Saskatchewan man convicted of sexual assault over an incident at a house party in 2020 has been denied.
Mitchell Biesenthal was convicted by a judge and jury trial in Estevan in 2022, being sentenced to three years incarceration along with several other orders.
A publication ban is in effect on any information that could identify the complainant.
According to the Court of Appeal decision handed down Feb. 7, Biesenthal met the complainant in the case at the party in Oct. 2020. The complainant testified that in the late hours of the night, she was left alone with Biesenthal as others in the house went to bed.
“At Mr. Biesenthal’s invitation, the complainant agreed to dance,” the appeal decision said.
After that, the complainant testified Biesenthal pushed her onto the couch and proceeded to sexually assault her through touching and forced sexual intercourse.
“I was gone. Zoned out. Done. Physically, yeah, I was still there,” the decision said, quoting the complainant’s testimony.
The incident ended when the complainant’s sister entered the room. The complainant rushed to the bathroom, before telling her sister she was leaving. She did not tell her sister about the assault until the following day.
The complainant’s sister testified she was certain from what she’d seen that the two had not just been kissing on the living room floor. She later exchanged Snapchat messages with Biesenthal.
“I’m usually not like that. I get consent all the time. I will find a way to make up for it,” Biesenthal said in one message during the exchange, which were presented as evidence at trial.
In court, Biesenthal denied a sexual assault took place, saying he kissed the complainant during a pair of songs and moved to the couch to “make out.” He told court all the kissing was consensual, and did not progress beyond that.
On the Snapchat messages, Biesenthal testified that he didn’t know what he was apologizing for and any apology offered was meant to appease the complainant’s sister, not admit to any criminal wrongdoing.
Grounds of Biesenthal’s appeal include alleged errors in the judge’s instructions to the jury and a refusal to amend the indictment to contain two separate counts of sexual assault (one for non-consensual kissing, the second for non-consensual touching and intercourse), which the Court of Appeal struck down.
As a result, Biesenthal’s appeal has been dismissed. He was ordered to surrender to the Estevan RCMP detachment on or before Feb. 9.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Large numbers of New York City police officers begin entering Columbia University campus
Large numbers of New York City police officers began entering the Columbia University late Tuesday as dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters remained on the campus.
Poilievre kicked out of Commons after calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'wacko'
Testy exchanges between the prime minister and his chief opponent ended with the Opposition leader and one of his MPs being ejected from the House of Commons on Tuesday -- and the rest of Conservative caucus walking out of the chamber in protest.
Baby, grandparents among 4 people killed in wrong-way police chase on Ontario's Hwy. 401
A police chase which started with a liquor store robbery in Bowmanville Monday night ended in tragedy some 20 minutes later when a suspect fleeing police entered Highway 401 in the wrong direction and caused a pileup which killed an infant and the child's grandparents, as well as the suspect, investigators say.
Freeland leaves capital gains tax change out of coming budget implementation bill, here's why
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will be tabling yet another omnibus bill to pass a sweeping range of measures promised in her April 16 federal budget, though left out of the legislation will be the government's proposed capital gains tax change.
Sword-wielding man attacks passersby in London, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring 4 others
A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and police officers in a northeast London suburb Tuesday, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring four other people, British authorities said.
Man dies after suffering cardiac arrest while waiting in ER, widow wants investigation
When an ambulance took David Lippert to the hospital in March of 2023, the 68-year-old Kitchener, Ont., executive was hoping to find out why he was feeling weak and unable to walk. Some 24 hours later, he was found unresponsive in the ER.
CSE says it shared information on Chinese hacking of parliamentarians in 2022
While several MPs and senators say they were only recently made aware of China-backed hackers targeting them, the Communications Security Establishment, one of Canada's intelligence agencies, says it shared information about the incident with parliamentary officials in June of 2022.
WATCH Arnold Schwarzenegger spotted filming in Elora, Ont.
The name of the project has not been officially released although it’s widely believed to be the Netflix series FUBAR.
Eviction for landlord's use was legitimate, despite owners' partial move, B.C. court rules
A B.C. judge has upheld the eviction of a family from their North Vancouver townhouse, finding that the landlords did not take an unreasonable amount of time to move into the home after the tenants vacated it.