As the trial for a man accused of seven counts of sexual assault began in Victoria on Monday, women took the stand to describe how they felt something being splashed on them while walking downtown and noticed their tights were disintegrating.
Two women and a teenager testified Monday morning in the trial of Sean James O’Reilly, who pleaded not guilty to seven counts of sexual assault related to incidents that took place between Nov. 17, 2022, and Dec. 29, 2022.
Crown prosecutor Mark Feldthusen said in opening remarks that the court will hear that seven women had a warm liquid splashed on their legs in six separate incidents in downtown Victoria. The liquid caused their nylons to disintegrate, revealing some of their skin underneath, he said.
Some women said they felt a burning or itching sensation, which disappeared fairly quickly and did not cause lasting injury, Feldthusen said.
Feldthusen said at issue in the trial is proving O’Reilly is responsible for the incidents, and establishing the assaults were sexual in nature.
The Crown plans to call as witnesses the seven women, whose identities are protected by a publication ban, and three officers who investigated the incidents.
The first woman to testify described walking south on Douglas Street near View Street after leaving work on Nov. 17, 2022, when she felt a spray on the back of her legs and a “strong prickling” sensation.
“It felt like being sprayed with a spray bottle or a squirt gun, with wet droplets hitting the back of my legs,” she said.
When she touched the back of her legs to see if they were damp, her hands were covered in a sticky, black residue, the woman testified.
She realized her tights were disintegrating. Little holes had appearing in the tights and the material was becoming more transparent, while her legs were black from the residue, she said.
The prickling and burning sensation increased and she was unable to wash it off her legs with paper towels and water, so she rushed to her partner’s apartment to shower.
After she scrubbed the residue off her legs, the burning sensation stopped, she testified.
A teenager also testified about a similar experience on Nov. 23, 2022. She said she felt a splash and didn’t know what it was. Her legs began to tingle and her tights started disintegrating.
She was in shock and called a friend shortly after to talk about the incident. The friend told her mother, who contacted the girl’s father. When she arrived home, her father called the police.
Those who testified Monday morning described being unsure of what had happened to them.
Under cross-examination, the first woman said she wasn’t initially sure if the incident was serious enough to report to police.
“I felt like maybe I didn’t have enough information for it to be. … I wasn’t sure if someone had sprayed me or not,” she said.
She said she talked to police after seeing a news story about similar incidents downtown. Realizing that it seemed to be a recurring incident, she decided it was worth reporting, she said.
No evidence was given Monday about what the liquid involved was.
The trial continues Tuesday.
