The lawyer for a retired Chatham violin teacher accused of sexual assault is asking for an acquittal.
Claude Eric Trachy is accused of sex crimes involving several of his students over many years and faces nearly 50 charges, including sexual assault, sexual exploitation and sexual interference.
Closing submissions by defence lawyer Ken Marley ask for an acquittal saying there's no eyewitnesses and no forensic evidence to the alleged fondling. He also says the 20 complainants' recollections are less than perfect because the events happened so long ago.
Marley says the 72-year-old's touching was not sexual but prosecutor Lisa Defoe disagreed in the start of her closing submissions. Defoe says the touching was sexual, citing that Trachy measured under the breast to determine size before fitting students with violin chin and shoulder rests. She says the rest placement is nowhere near the breast and adds that he was a teacher for 40-plus years, is intelligent and knew what he was doing.
Defoe also says that Trachy's daughter became a successful violin player without the rests and questions why he never discussed using rests with her during her eight years of lessons with him if they were that important.
She accuses Trachy of abusing the trust of students and parents.
Under cross-examination in Chatham court on Friday, Trachy admitted to measuring student breasts with a ruler several times to accommodate the rests for proper playing technique and that he could have ran his hands across some breasts.
Trachy’s wife says her husband usually taught behind closed and sometimes locked doors in the basement prior to late 1991 just before he was charged with sex offences and ordered by the courts not to be alone with children while on bail. He then started teaching in the upstairs living room. He was convicted of those crimes in late 1993.
Submissions continue on Monday and a verdict is set for April 23.
