MANDEL: Frank Stronach accuser says Valentine's Day ended with rape
· Toronto Sun
It was Valentine’s Day in 1986 and the lonely registered nurse decided to head to Rooney’s — a disco often frequented by her ski club friends.
She was a looker then, she assured the court. Tall, thin and “very, very pretty,” she said she looked younger than her mid-30s. She dressed in red — per the instructions of Rooney’s when she called before heading over — ordered a glass of wine and surveyed a club much emptier than she’d expected.
Visit asg-reflektory.pl for more information.
The woman testified that a group of handsome men soon headed to the bar, she recalled, and among them was “Frank,” a kind, smooth-talking, well-dressed man — though nothing in the looks department — who invited her to dance, treated her to shrimp on ice, bought her another drink or two and later gave her one of the club’s balloons with a request to be his valentine.
“He never told me who he really was,” she testified. “He knew how to play up to you, to win your trust.”
By 2:30 a.m., with the subway closed, she said Frank offered to drive her home. She says a young man pulled up his car, a burgundy “piece of junk,” and the two headed toward her place until he ignored her directions and insisted he had to stop at his Harbour Castle condo for a quick coffee before he could continue.
She testified that she reluctantly followed him to his high-level suite with its wall of windows overlooking the lake. To her shock, she says he was suddenly naked and beckoning her to join him in his large water bed with its mirrored ceiling overhead.
“I started panicking. The reality hit me,” she recalled, almost hyperventilating at the memory. “I realized what’s going to happen to me.”
Overcome with emotion in court
The sixth complainant to testify against Stronach, the woman now in her early 70s was often so overcome with emotion during her emotional testimony that Justice Anne Molloy had to instruct her to pause and draw deep breaths to calm herself.
Following her testimony, the Crown indicated they’d be withdrawing the forcible confinement charge Stronach faced in relation to the witness, leaving 11 charges involving seven women between 1977 and 1990; the billionaire has pleaded not guilty to all counts.
She says she thought she managed to fend him off — she said he put his pants back on after she threatened to break all his windows and throw herself into the lake if he didn’t take her home. But she testified that it was only a temporary reprieve.
She says that as they sat on his sofa and he urged her to calm down and have some Dubonnet, he then pulled down her red pants and despite her attempts to fight him off, he raped her.
‘Worst experience of my life’
“I was numb. I felt dirty. I felt like I was used like a piece of trash,” she recalled through her tears. “It was the worst experience of my life.”
And she would never be the same, she said.
“My trust was so betrayed. I trusted this man and he betrayed my trust. And he betrayed my trust not just towards him but towards everyone who came after him,” she sobbed. “That’s why I’m alone … I should be married with beautiful children.”
She says that when he finally drove her home — though he dropped her on the street and not at the doors to her apartment building — she said “Frank” had the audacity to offer her a job at Rooney’s.
“I slammed the (car) door and I said to him, and I’m sure he remembers: ‘Take your job and shove it. I am a registered nurse. I don’t need your job.'”
She didn’t go to police then, she explained. She was too ashamed.
She only learned his true identity several months later, she said, when she saw his face in the newspaper and discovered “Frank” was the CEO and founder of auto-parts giant Magna International. She says she went back to the club to confront Stronach but was escorted out by a bouncer.
She says for years, she kept her secret as she developed depression and anxiety — “I’m a social recluse” — and even had to give up the nursing job she loved. A neighbour finally convinced her to report the alleged sexual assault, she says.
Unlike the other women who have testified to coming forward after learning of Stronach’s arrest in 2024, the nurse went to Toronto Police in 2006.
“I should have done (it) a long time ago,” she said, more to herself than anyone else. “That was a mistake.”
Her evidence was cut short when the judge found she was rambling, too tired and emotional to continue. Her testimony — and cross-examination — continue Thursday.