WARNING: This article references sexual assault and may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it.
The defence lawyer for a Hamilton police officer accused of sexually assaulting a colleague spent much of Monday portraying the relationship between the two as a consensual, if clandestine, affair.
Both the defendant, Jeffery Turnbull, and his colleague, whose name is protected by a publication ban, were in other relationships in March 2022, when Turnbull is accused of raping her at his home. Turnbull was charged with one count of sexual assault in June 2023 by Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU).
The trial was back on at the Hamilton courthouse for the first time since January, when it paused partway through the defence’s cross-examination of the woman who accuses Turnbull of assault.
Her testimony, and Turnbull’s return to the witness box afterwards, painted drastically different narratives of the nature of their relationship and the timeline of events.
Turnbull’s lawyer, Joanne Mulcahy, asked the female officer multiple times to confirm a version of events that the woman flatly denied. Mulcahy alleged the female officer was having an affair with Turnbull, that she had already cheated on her boyfriend — now fiancé — with someone else, and that she met up with Turnbull outside of work after the date of the alleged assault.
“You told him you had a prior affair on your boyfriend you had not told your friends about,” said Mulcahy.
“I did not,” responded the woman, saying her fiancé has the password to the Snapchat account the defence alleged she used to send Turnbull flirtatious messages and photos.
Mulcahy notes Turnbull at one point sent her a text message that said, “I am sorry for f–king things up for you.”
“That’s in terms of this affair you had,” Mulcahy said, in an attempt to explain what he was referring to.
“We did not have an affair,” the woman responded.
The 28-year-old woman has testified Turnbull, 40, sent her inappropriate messages and touched her without her consent over a four-month period before he raped her in his basement.
Turnbull has pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual assault in the Ontario Court of Justice trial being heard by Justice Jennifer Marie Campitelli in Hamilton.
The woman says she went to Turnbull’s house the evening of the alleged assault because she panicked when he messaged her about killing himself, but the defence has noted she did not mention suicide in interviews she gave to internal Hamilton police or investigators with the SIU in 2022.
The lawyer read from interview transcripts in which the woman said Turnbull guilted her into coming over by telling him his children wanted to see her and her dog. The first time she mentioned suicide, Mulcahy said, was in a December 2024 interview with the Crown.
Once there, the woman says Turnbull kissed her, grabbed her and pushed her into the couch. She said she couldn’t get up fast enough because of a back injury, and he took off her pants and underwear.
“I kept telling him I didn’t want this. I wanted to go home,” she said.
She said he took off his pants and penetrated her with his penis, ejaculating inside her. She said he told her not to worry about him not wearing a condom because he had had a vasectomy.
Much of Monday’s session was led by questioning from Mulcahy, who presented a picture of the previous months in which the two were in regular contact and mutually flirtatious. The woman said on a previous court date that she played along with Turnbull to dissuade him from messaging her more, even though he made her uncomfortable.
“I would do what I had to do to make sure my life wasn’t miserable at work,” she said.
She says he texted and pressured her for months. Among the texts Mulcahy read on Monday was a lengthy string of unanswered messages he sent to her in February 2025 after he says she had confronted him about rumours she had heard about him.
“I am not trying to get in your pants, I just think you’re great. But I understand if you are uncomfortable about it all,” he wrote. “I know I am flirty .. I have a lack of filter as well.”
“Sorry for the text bomb,” the texts continue, going on without reply from one evening to the following morning. “You have nothing to worry about with me despite what you hear.”
Turnbull says that on one occasion, the woman sent him a photo of herself in the bath using a soap he bought for her, something she denies. Another time, he says she was fantasizing over text about what it would be like if they had sex, so he sent her a full-body nude photo. He says she responded with emojis of a face with heart eyes and a fire, indicating she liked it.
“In the morning, I woke up and apologized to [her]. That had been the furthest things had gone between us,” he said Monday. “She apologized as well but said it was OK because she liked what she saw.”
The trial continues Tuesday.
If you’re in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911. For support in your area, you can look for crisis lines and local services via the Ending Violence Association of Canada database.
