Warning: graphic content

Motel owner John Pontes denied accusations of sexually assaulting and extorting a motel tenant when he took the stand in his own defence Tuesday.

Pontes is on trial at Saskatoon Provincial Court for sexual assault and extortion of a tenant who was staying at the Northwoods Inn and Suites last year. Both Crown and defence closed their cases Tuesday.

The woman, who began staying at the motel in April 2017, testified she was short on rent money and that Pontes told her she could continue staying at the motel if she had sex with him.

She initially agreed to meet Pontes in his room on the evening of June 1, 2017 to have sex. She said Pontes gave her a beer, but when the two took of some of their clothes, she changed her mind.

She decided having sex with Pontes wouldn’t be worth it, even if she had nowhere to go, Crown prosecutor Sheryl Fillo said.

Fillo said when the woman tried to leave Pontes’s room he ripped the clothes out of her hands and said something along the lines of, “where the f--- are you going?”

Pontes then threw her on the bed and raped her, according to Fillo. She said the woman asked Pontes to use a condom, but he didn’t.

Court heard the woman is HIV positive and that Pontes does not have HIV.

Pontes rents out rooms at the motel on a weekly and monthly basis and charges $1,100 per month, court heard.

Pontes testified Tuesday and denied all accusations of sexual assault against him, including raping the woman in his suite and putting his hands inside her bra in a different part of the motel.

“I had no intercourse with her or anybody else,” he said.

He said he was forced to evict the woman because she was bringing groups of drug users to the motel after being warned several times not to. He said the woman had little belongings and that staff found her room in poor shape with numerous needles and ripped up sheets.

“She would come and cry to me and I felt sorry for her but we have a business to protect,” Pontes testified.

In her closing argument, Fillo said the woman’s testimony was very detailed and she was able to describe what Pontes’s suite at the motel looked like, even though Pontes testified tenants are not allowed in his bedroom. Pontes said the woman could have been in his suite at some point, but not for sex.

In his closing statement, defence lawyer Patrick Fagan pointed out the results of the woman’s rape kit were not included in the trial, arguing there is no physical evidence in the case.

“There was nothing in that medical examination ... to support the allegations of the complainant,” Fagan said.

He called the woman an “exceedingly empathetic complainant” who engaged in prostitution, drug and alcohol use and dealt with the murder of her sister.

He argued she admitted to drinking alcohol and doing crystal meth within 15 hours of testifying, but Fillo said the woman knew it was important she be sober for her testimony.

The identity of alleged victims in sexual assault cases are automatically protected under a publication ban.

Judge Morris Baniak reserved his decision until Nov. 8. Pontes is scheduled to stand trial in February on separate sexual assault, extortion and uttering threats charges.