Canadian navy sailor denied appeal for violent sexual assault on B.C. military base

The HMCS Calgary is seen behind sailors during a change of command ceremony at CFB Esquimalt, in Esquimalt, B.C., Wednesday, June 24, 2015. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito

A former Canadian navy sailor who was sentenced to prison for a violent sexual assault that occurred on a British Columbia military base has lost his bid to overturn his conviction before the province’s highest court.

Hayden Chokrev-Evans was sentenced last year to three years and eight months behind bars after a jury convicted the then 23-year-old of sexual assault causing bodily harm.

During his five-day trial, the jury heard that the sailor choked and suffocated the woman, whom he had recently met on a dating app, in the course of the assault.

The jurors acquitted Chokrev-Evans of one count of uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm to the victim, whose identity is protected by a publication ban.

• Read more: Canadian navy sailor jailed for violent sexual assault on B.C. military base

Chokrev-Evans, who was released from the Canadian Armed Forces prior to sentencing, appealed his conviction on the grounds that the trial judge erred twice: first, by failing to investigate whether he and the victim had prior sexual interactions; and again, by failing to hold a voir dire – or a trial within a trial – prior to allowing the jury to see evidence of sexualized text messages between the two parties.

On the first matter, B.C. Appeal Court Justice Leonard Marchand found no evidence was presented to the court to support the sailor’s claim that “at least one and possibly two” consensual sexual interactions occurred in the minutes before the assault. Moreover, the judge determined there was no indication that such evidence, if presented, would have been relevant to the case.

On the second basis for the appeal, Marchand agreed that the trial judge did err by failing to hold a voir dire on the admissibility of the text messages, but found the error had no bearing on the trial verdict.

“The sexual banter between Mr. Chokrev-Evans and the complainant… was innocuous and could not possibly have impacted the jury’s deliberations,” Marchand wrote on behalf of the three-judge Appeal Court panel.

“The sexual content of the messages was not brought up during witness testimony. Nor was it mentioned in the closing arguments of either party.”

The victim testified at trial that she met Chokrev-Evans on Tinder and the two began messaging before meeting in person in Nanaimo in October 2022. Days after their first meeting, the woman travelled to the Victoria area to see him again.

Chokrev-Evans told the court that he misled the woman into believing he was interested in a long-term relationship when all he wanted was “quick sex.”

The woman arrived at Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt that afternoon and visited Chokrev-Evans in his dorm room. They watched three episodes of a Netflix series about serial killer and sex offender Jeffery Dahmer before Chokrev-Evans left for the gym.

According to the Appeal Court decision, which was published online Friday, Ckokrev-Evans returned to his room about 30 minutes later and immediately assaulted the woman.

The victim “described a violent sexual assault in which Mr. Chokrev-Evans choked her, struck her repeatedly in the head, and bashed her head against the wall,” Marchand summarized. The woman testified that she could not breathe at times and was starting to lose consciousness.

Prosecutors submitted photographs at trial showing injuries on the woman’s body. She also testified that the assault left her deeply traumatized and depressed, requiring counselling and medication to recover.

During the hearing, Chokrev-Evans did not acknowledge guilt or express any remorse for the victim, the trial judge noted.

“I am concerned that Mr. Chokrev-Evans has little prospect of rehabilitation as he has shown a total lack of understanding of the impact or seriousness of his behaviour,” B.C. Supreme Court Justice Carla Forth wrote in her sentencing decision. “He continues to maintain that he did nothing wrong and has, in his words, ‘no feelings’ for what happened.”

At the conclusion of his sentencing hearing, Chokrev-Evans was granted 138 days credit for time already served in custody. In addition to the 44-month prison term, he was ordered to submit DNA samples and provide information to the national sex offender registry.