WARNING: This story contains details of alleged sexual assault A Saskatoon woman told a jury she was 17-years-old when Kenneth Braun put his finger inside her vagina during a massage therapy appointment in September 1996. She said she started crying and told Braun she wanted to go home. “He said, ‘We’re not finished here yet,’ and then my brain just blocked the rest,” she said. The woman, now 47, testified at Braun’s trial at the Court of King’s Bench in Saskatoon on Tuesday morning. Her identity is protected under a publication ban, along with the identities of Braun’s other alleged victims. Braun, 70, is charged with three counts of sexual assault and one count of sexual exploitation of a young person while in a position of trust or authority. The woman said a teacher referred her to Braun. She saw him for massage therapy in Grades 11 and 12, hoping it would help with her Raynaud syndrome — a condition that temporarily reduces blood flow to the fingers and toes, often in response to cold or stress. She first saw him in the basement of his Boychuk Drive home and later in his garage studio on Degeer Street. She wore a one-piece bathing suit to her first appointment. She said Braun asked her to wear only a bra and underwear. At her second appointment, she said Braun asked if she wanted her glutes massaged while she was lying on her stomach. “I didn’t know what that word meant. He slapped my butt and said, ‘Your bum,’” she testified. She said Braun then removed her underwear and massaged her buttocks. She told the jury he would remove her bra during appointments and that she recalled him massaging her breasts “a couple times.” The woman said she was lying on her back without a sheet over her during the September 1996 appointment. She said Braun told her he was having trouble finding her pelvic bone and asked if she could help him find it. When she reached down, she said she felt intense pain and realized his finger was inside her vagina. “I knew something was wrong,” she testified. The woman said she left without booking another appointment because she was “scared to go back.” She said Braun called her home the following month, and her mother told her she needed to book another appointment. She told the jury she was afraid to tell anyone because she thought no one would believe her and that Braun could lose his job. She reported the alleged assault in 2022, 26 years later, after police appealed for people to come forward. The trial is scheduled to continue Thursday.
