Mining tycoon who sexually assaulted blind date claims he has 'sexsomnia', ex-girlfriend and mom confirm condition
A Canadian mining tycoon who is standing trial on accusations that he sexually assaulted his blind date has claimed that he was experiencing "sexsomnia" when the alleged abuse occurred.
Karl Richard Antonius, the 51-year-old president and CEO of Boreal Metals Corps, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he sexually assaulted the victim after a date in 2015, according to the Daily Mail.
In his defense, Antonius said he suffered from sexsomnia — which is also known as sleep sex and is characterized by the individual engaging in involuntary sexual activity while asleep — and that he was not in complete control of his actions.
The accusations against the 51-year-old were brought in by the victim this past April, who testified during the hearing that, on the day, she and Antonius visited several places before she lost her apartment keys and he suggested that they go back to his "work" apartment at the Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel.
She said she had no interest in having sex with Antonius, and that she only wanted to sleep so she could get some rest and go back to finding her keys the next day. She said he gave her a change of shorts and a t-shirt, and that after she got into bed, he climbed in beside her and sexually assaulted her.
She said he groped her and that she swatted his hand away while saying no, but when she fell asleep, he got on top of her and started having sex with her.
Antonius denied the allegations and said he had no recollection of the events and that he suffered from sexsomnia at the time as he "would never intentionally do that to a woman".
He said the woman was just angry that she had lost the keys to her apartment. His 20-year-old girlfriend testified that, in 2018, there had been a similar incident when they were holidaying at a condo in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
She said Antonius had tried to have sex with her several times one night when she was not in the mood, and that, while she was "confused and scared", she figured "it was a sleepwalk".
His mother, Val Downing, also shared an incident from the summer of 2018 while they were traveling through Rome. She said they were forced to share a king-sized bed one night, and that her son cupped her breast in the middle of the night.
"I woke up and I said, 'Karl, it's your mother, stop it', and he stopped right away," she told the court. She also testified to another incident where he reportedly walked into her room naked and demanded to know why she was sleeping in his bed.
Crown counsel Alan Ip suggested that sexsomnia was just an excuse to deny responsibility for his actions. "You have maintained this charade that you have no memory of the sexual assaults on [the alleged victim] and [the girlfriend]?" he told Antonius during the cross-examination.
"But, you remember and you know exactly what you did to [the girlfriend] and [the complainant]," he added. The trial continues.