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Oliver man denies sex assault

Trial continues for man accused of sexually inappropriate behaviour with his girlfriend's daughter

An Oliver man on trial for sexually inappropriate behaviour with his girlfriend’s pre-teen daughter told RCMP he is “not interested in children.”

“There is nothing funny going on here, it is just a mix-up,” the man told an Oliver RCMP officer.

Video of the man’s interview with RCMP was played in the Penticton provincial courthouse on Monday, in which the man gave several explanations of how the child could have confused situations or got ideas.

The man said he had been caught coming out of the shower a few times by the girl, which could explain how she knew what his penis looked like. He admitted he had laid the girl down for bedtime and on a few occasions had fallen asleep beside her, and it was possible his “hand could have been somewhere it shouldn’t be,” but purely by accident.

“I don’t want sex with an 11-year-old child. That is not something I am interested in,” said the man in the video interview with RCMP.

The man, who cannot be named to protect the girl’s identity, is charged with sexual assault, sexual interference with a person under 16 and touching a young person for a sexual purpose.

In October, the girl testified in court that the man said sexual things to her, would come into her room and touch her private area, and one afternoon came home and attempted to penetrate her. The girl said she was afraid to tell anyone because the man made threats against her family and that no one would believe her.

The allegations came to light when the girl stayed home from school one day because she was sick. Her teacher drove her to the restaurant where the girl’s mother worked, and before seeing her out of the vehicle asked what was bothering her student. The girl then nodded when asked if there was something inappropriate happening at home.

The Oliver man said in the RCMP video, the child watched a lot of adult content on television, and during one period of time when she was sick with a temperature of 106 she could have become confused about what was happening.

The man said his girlfriend, the girl’s mom, had also made him check the daughter’s vagina by spreading her legs apart while she sat in the bathroom to see if there was anything wrong with her medically. He told the RCMP officer he felt uncomfortable doing this and it was done in a “parental” manner to see if anything was wrong with her. The man also said the mother of the child was standing in the bathroom with them when he touched the girl in her private area to determine if anything was wrong.

The defence began mounting an argument in October that the girl had lied to her mother before and that she did not get along with her mother or the live-in boyfriend, pointing out that they quite often got into yelling matches.

The Oliver man has a scheduled court date of March 12 to fix a date to continue the trial.