“It was not my goal to get money from him,” says the complainant in Virtanen’s sexual assault trial

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A BC woman who claims she was sexually assaulted by former Vancouver Canuck winger Jake Virtanen says she was not motivated by money when she filed a civil lawsuit against him.

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The plaintiff’s statement, who cannot be identified due to a publication ban, came during her second day of cross-examination at Virtanen’s trial at the British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver.

She alleges that Virtanen sexually assaulted her in her hotel room at the Westin Bayshore on Sept. 26, 2017. Virtanen, now 25, has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charge.

The court has heard that in addition to contacting the media and police in 2021, the whistleblower hired a lawyer and filed a civil suit against the former right-winger.

Under questioning by the Crown, she testified that her goal in suing Virtanen was to “get some peace of mind” and denied that it was for money.

On Wednesday, Brock Martland, Virtanen’s attorney, said money is ultimately all that a civil court can order.

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“Yes,” said the complainant. “That was not my goal in initially going to my lawyer. It wasn’t my goal to sue him. It wasn’t my goal to get money from him.”

The complaint said the “main reason” he came forward in the first place was to get his story told and believed, and to get people to say it wasn’t his fault and that Virtanen was wrong.

“I don’t even know how much money would come out of it,” he said of the lawsuit.

“Well, it could be huge,” Martland said.

“I did not know that,” replied the complainant. “The amount of trauma and stress I’ve been through, it’s not worth any amount of money.”

Martland suggested that the plaintiff knew that even for a starting NHL player, the salary would be $1 million or more, but denied knowing that was the case.

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The complainant denied having a lavish lifestyle or spending habits.

The defense attorney then questioned the complainant about several tweets she had posted online, including one that said, “I have a problem with expenses, someone confiscated my credit card,” but the complainant said those tweets were just a joke. .

Regarding his motive for reporting the allegations, Martland suggested that he knew it would provoke an enormous amount of public anger directed at the hockey player.

“Yes, it seems so,” she said.

“You wanted that,” Martland said.

“I wanted him to be held accountable, yes,” he said. “He created this. If he had taken no for an answer, he would have walked away and none of this would have happened.”

“Do you hate Jake Virtanen?” Martland said.

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“Honestly, yes,” the woman said.

The court heard that the morning after the alleged sexual assault, instead of taking her back to her friend’s house, Virtanen told her he could only provide her with taxi money because he was attending the team’s practice.

She agreed that the taxi fare provided was more than enough for the taxi and agreed with Martland’s suggestion that it made her feel like a sex worker.

“He just threw a bunch of money at me and walked away,” he said. “I felt demeaned, he could just throw money at me and walk away,” she added.

When questioned by Martland, she agreed that she felt she had been used for sex and that, for Virtanen, it was just about sex.

“You felt like, to use the expression, you were a notch in his bedpost,” Martland said.

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“Correct,” the complaint said. “Yes.”

When asked about seeing Virtanen leave the hotel and go to his vehicle, the complainant said she saw another man, who she assumed was also a hockey player, with Virtanen.

He agreed with Martland that it was the first time he had mentioned a second person at the scene, but said he believed that was not relevant information.

The trial continues.

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