A former UQAM professor who allegedly hit and strangled his partner during sexual relations began to stand trial, with the complainant’s poignant testimony.
“He was a teacher, that gave me confidence, especially since he was funny and he gave me a lot of compliments. I felt important,” explained Brad Aeon’s alleged victim this Tuesday at the Montreal courthouse.
Aeon, a 35-year-old researcher, is a specialist in time management and well-being who has already been cited in prestigious publications around the world. He also taught at UQAM, but he lost his job around 2022, when he was accused of sexual assault on a woman he had met on the Tinder application.
Sexual violence
“When we first met, he made me drink a lot and I don’t remember everything, but he was so violent that I wanted to run away,” the woman explained. There was a slap with great momentum, at one point I had to protect myself with both hands. It was brutal.”
The complainant, whose identity cannot be revealed by court order, explained that normally she would have cut ties at that time. Except that faced with the reassuring words of the accused, she agreed to see him again. And the beatings in a sexual context began again, even though the woman had clearly said that she was open to certain practices, but that she “didn’t like the pain.”
“He convinced me to go to his house, that’s when he jumped at my throat, strangled me with both hands,” she said of a other event. “He took them off just before I passed out.”
The woman said she protested, saying that afterward, Aeon would not have strangled her like that again. Instead, he allegedly began insulting her and biting her to the point of leaving her with bruises.
“I understood that he liked to see me writhing in pain,” said the woman who, at one point, even wondered if she was the problem.
Consent
However, for the police and the Crown, it would rather be Aeon who would have a problem, so much so that charges of sexual assault were filed against him.
“We are talking about an incident of violence in a sexual context, it concerns the consent of the complainant,” explained Me Lauren Dahan, Crown.
Aeon, by pleading not guilty through his lawyer, Me Adam Ginzburg has said he denies any sexual assault.
It will therefore be up to Judge Marie Kettlyne Ruben to decide, after hearing all the evidence. The trial is scheduled to last all week.