The first complainant to testify at the trial of Edmonton bar promoter Matthew McKnight told court on Thursday she was sexually assaulted during a party at a bar on Whyte Avenue.
The woman said she was 18 years old and had recently graduated high school when she and a friend attended a glow-paint party at Lucky 13 in November 2011.
Many of the men at the party were bare chested, while women sported bikini tops so they could have their bodies adorned with paint that glows under black light, the woman testified in Edmonton Court of Queen’s Bench.
McKnight, dressed in a dark suit and taking notes in the courtroom on his laptop, pleaded not guilty last week multiple charges for alleged sexual assaults dating from 2010 to 2016.
The complainant recounted the night at the Lucky 13 party, where she ran into McKnight, whom she had first met a week earlier at another bar.
She said McKnight gave her free drinks, and later led her down the hall to the liquor storage room. He poured another shot into her mouth, before taking her to the manager’s office, she said.
She said they may have kissed. He then took her hand and put it down his shorts and she stroked his penis. The woman testified that the next thing she remembers was that her pants were down and he was penetrating her anally, without consent.
“I was just in shock that that was the position I was in, and it was just so painful it was hard to collect my thoughts,” the woman said.
She said the anal intercourse lasted a few minutes before she finally found her voice and told McKnight to stop.
She said he stopped and they put their pants on. But before he unlocked the door he asked that she not tell anyone, and she agreed.
Later that evening, the woman said, McKnight approached her on the dance floor to confirm that she wouldn’t tell anyone what had happened.
She said she bled from her anus for the next four days and was sore for at least a week but didn’t seek medical attention because she was too embarrassed.
McKnight faces 13 charges of sexual assault. His jury trial started last week and is expected to last another 10 weeks.
After McKnight was initially charged in August 2016 more than a dozen additional complainants came forward, including the woman who testified on Thursday.
The woman brushed away tears as she recalled hearing about McKnight’s initial charges in the news, then hearing it had prompted additional women to come forward.
In October 2016, the woman reported her experience with McKnight to Edmonton police.
“I felt responsible that he had been able to hurt them,” she said in court.
Defence lawyer Dino Bottos is expected to cross-examine the woman on Thursday afternoon.