WARNING: This article refers to sexual aggression and can affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by him.
The defense lawyer of a Hamilton police officer accused of sexually assaulting a colleague spent much of Monday by portraying the relationship between the two as a consensual issue, although clandestine.
Both the defendant, Jeffery Turnbull, and his colleague, whose name is protected by a publication prohibition, were in other relations in March 2022, when Turnbull is accused of raping her at home. Turnbull was accused of a position of sexual aggression in June 2023 by the Special Research Unit (SIU) of Ontario.
The trial returned in the Palace of Justice of Hamilton for the first time since January, when half of the interrogation of the defense of the woman who accuses Turnbull of assault was arrested.
His testimony, and Turnbull’s return to the witness box later, painted drastically different stories from the nature of their relationship and the timeline of the events.
Turnbull’s lawyer, Joanne Mulcahy, asked the official woman several times to confirm a version of the events that the woman flatly denied. Mulcahy claimed that the officer was having an adventure with Turnbull, who had already fooled her boyfriend, now promised, with someone else, and that she met with Turnbull out of work after the date of the alleged assault.
“You told him you had a previous adventure with your boyfriend that you hadn’t told your friends,” Mulcahy said.
“I did not,” the woman replied, saying that her fiance has the password of the Snapchat account that the defense claimed that she used to send messages and photos flirtatious from Turnbull.
Mulcahy points out that Turnbull at one time sent him a text message that said: “I regret that things refer to you.”
“That is in terms of this matter you had,” said Mulcahy, in an attempt to explain what he meant.
“We didn’t have an adventure,” the woman replied.
The woman says she was raped in March 2022
The 28 -year -old woman testified that Turnbull, 40, sent inappropriate messages and touched her without her consent for a period of four months before violating her in her basement.
Turnbull declared himself innocent of a position of sexual aggression at the trial of the Court of Justice of Ontario, Judge Jennifer Marie Campitelli heard in Hamilton.
The woman says she went to Turnbull’s house the night of the alleged assault because she panicked when she sent her a message to commit suicide, but the defense noticed that she did not mention the suicide in the interviews she gave to the police or internal investigators of Hamilton with the SIU in 2022.
The lawyer read of the transcripts of the interview in which the woman said that Turnbull blamed her to tell her that her children wanted to see her already her dog. The first time he mentioned suicide, Mulcahy said, was in an December 2024 interview with the crown.
Once there, the woman says that Turnbull kissed her, grabbed her and pushed her into the couch. She said she couldn’t get up quickly because of a back injury, and he removed her pants and underwear.
“I kept telling him that I didn’t want this. I wanted to go home,” he said.
She said he removed her pants and penetrated her with her penis, ejaculating inside her. She said he told her not to worry about not using a condom because she had had a vasectomy.
‘You have nothing to worry about with me’
Much of Monday’s session was directed by Mulcahy’s interrogation, who presented an image of the previous months in which the two were in regular contact and in mutual flirtatious. The woman said in a previous appointment that played along with Turnbull to deter him from sending him one more message, even though he bothered her.
“I would do what I had to do to make sure that my life was not miserable at work,” he said.
She says she sent her a text message and pressed her for months. Among the texts that Mulcahy read on Monday was a long series of unanswered messages that he sent him in February 2025 after he said he had faced him about rumors that he had heard about him.
“I’m not trying to get in my pants, I think you’re great. But I understand that if everything bothers you,” he wrote. “I know I’m flirtatious … I also have a lack of filter.”
“Sorry for the text pump,” the texts continue, continuing without response from one night the next morning. “You have nothing to worry with me despite what you hear.”
Turnbull says that on one occasion, the woman sent her a photo of herself in the bathroom with a soap that bought her, something she denies. On another occasion, he says he was fantasizing with a text message about what it would be like if they had sex, so he sent him a full -bare photo. He says she responded with emojis of a face with eyes of the heart and a fire, which indicates that she liked it.
“In the morning, I woke up and apologized with [her]. Those had been the furthest things among us, “he said Monday.” She also apologized but said she was fine because she liked what she saw. “
The trial continues on Tuesday.
If you are in immediate or fears for your safety or that of others around you, call 911. To obtain support in your area, you can search for local crisis and services through the Finish the database of the Canada Violence Association.
