The ex-husband of a B.C. teacher accused of sexually assaulting an elementary school student testified Friday that he hid in a closet and discovered the alleged victim visiting his house alone.
Deborah Ashton, 47, of Vernon is on trial for the second time for sexual assault and sexual interference with a person under the age of 14. The mother of two is accused of having roughly 200 sexual encounters with a student beginning in 2003, when she was a teacher and basketball coach at Mission Hill and the alleged victim was in her Grade 7 class.
Mike Jellema was her husband at the time. He testified in B.C. Supreme Court that his relationship with Ashton began to fail at the same time the alleged affair began and that he found condoms in the couple's en suite bathroom.
Defence lawyer Terry LaLiberte spent much of Friday objecting to Jellema's testimony, and contested the ex-husband's claims that he had seen the young boy visiting the home from his vantage point inside a closet.
"It wasn't at his house, it was at a car outside the house. The boy was waiting in the car when she went in to get something. She was giving him a ride home -- she was a friend of the family," LaLiberte told CTV News outside the court.
"A lot of this evidence is simply not relevant to this issue, and that's if she had sex with this boy."
Ashton's last trial ended a year ago when jurors were unable to reach a unanimous decision. The alleged victim testified last time around that he was not forced into a sexual relationship, though he would have been too young to legally consent.
The latest trial is expected to wrap up by the end of next week.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Kent Molgat
