Edmonton bar promoter pleads not guilty to multiple sex assaults

An Edmonton bar promoter accused of drugging and assaulting multiple women pleaded not guilty to 13 counts of sexual assault in Edmonton Court of Queen's Bench Wednesday.

Dressed in a navy suit in the prisoner's box, Matthew McKnight entered his plea, as his father and other supporters watched from the gallery on Wednesday.The mother of one of the 13 complainants was also present in the courtroom.

The eight women and five men who make up the jury heard opening arguments from Crown prosecutor Mark Huyser-Wierenga.

Huyser-Wierengasaid all but one of the allegationsinvolved vaginal-penile intercoursein McKnight's condo near Knoxville's Tavern on Jasper Avenueand 107th Street the now-shuttered bar where McKnight once worked.

The alleged sexual assaults happened between 2010 and 2016, starting when McKnight was 23.

"The complainants [were]all young nubile attractive slim females between the ages of 17 years and 22," Huyser-Wietengasaid. Their identities are protected under a publication ban.

He said McKnight met many of the women as a promoter.

Some of the complainants said they had blacked out and woke up to find McKnight having sex with them.

Six women believe they were unknowingly given thedate rape drugGHB, or gamma-hydroxybutyric acid, Huyser-Wierenga said.

He said some of the complainants immediately reported the incidents to police while others didn't make a formal complaint until years later.

One of the women who complained was a friend of Trystin Boyko, a nurse and a former employee of Knoxville's and the first witness to testifyWednesday.

He said one night in 2013, he wassocializing at Knoxville's with a complainantand another woman.

Boyko said he had about five drinks that night including a couple of rounds of promotional drinks given to them by McKnight.

After-party at McKnight's condo

At some point McKnight suggested they go to an after-party at his house, said Boyko.

Boyko said they got to McKnight's apartment, he offered them another shot from a Jack Daniels bottle that tasted "skunky."

Eventually,Boyko said he and the other woman ended up kissing in the living room but stopped when her demeanour changed and she became less responsive.

Judging by the glazed look in her eyes and limited speech, Boyko assumed she had had too much to drink. Boyko was also feeling more impaired than usual for the amount he had consumed. He decided thatthe three of them should leave McKnight's apartment.

Boyko said he found the complainant in the bedroom with McKnight who answered the door in boxer shorts.

She was lying motionless on the mattress in her underwear and didn't respond when he called out to her several times,Boykosaid.

"[McKnight] said something to the effect of 'don't worry she's too drunk, it's OK, I'll take care of her'," recalled Boyko who left with the other woman.

'Something that wasn't alcohol'

Boyko told court he laterconcluded he must have experienced another intoxicant that wasn't alcohol.

'That's not something I would normally feel after a night of drinking," Boyko said. "The only real solution that I'd come to is that at some point in the night I'd consumed something that wasn't alcohol."

When asked about GHB, which first gained notoriety as a date-rape drug but became increasingly popular as a recreational drug, Boyko saidhe had tried it and it had a saltytaste.

Boyko said GHB mimics the effects of alcohol, without the hangover.

Boyko will be cross-examined bydefence lawyer DinoBottos on Thursday.

After McKnight was initially charged in August 2016 more than a dozen additional complainants came forward.

Complainants are set to begin testifying next Tuesday.

Bottos won't deliver his opening arguments until mid-November in a trial expected to last at least ten weeks.