The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
Cole Harbour man convicted of brutal sexual assault
Pawel Marczak awaits February sentencing hearing
The Crown will seek a lengthy prison sentence for a Cole Harbour man convicted of sexually assaulting a transgender woman he met online in December 2021.
Pawel Marczak, 36, stood trial in Halifax provincial court on charges of assault and sexual assault by choking.
Judge Christine Driscoll found Marczak guilty on both counts in a decision last month.
Marczak will undergo a forensic sexual behaviour assessment prior to his sentencing, which is set for Feb. 12.
The complainant’s identity is protected by a publication ban. She testified at trial last June that Marczak visited her apartment in south-end Halifax on the night of Dec. 12, 2021.
The pair had drinks and snacks before getting into bed, where they watched anime on her cellphone and engaged in some sexual activity.
The complainant said she had not disclosed to Marczak that she was biologically male and was relieved when he didn’t react negatively after touching her genitals and discovering she had a penis. She said that after she performed oral sex on him, he got up and went to the door to leave.
She said she began crying because she realized Marczak was not interested in dating her and had only wanted to have sex. She told the court she wanted him to stay for the night but was not consenting to further sexual activity.
Instead of leaving, Marczak jumped on top of the complainant, pinned her wrists, punched her, spit in her face and insulted her with derogatory terms.
She said Marczak set up a small video camera to record them and then sexually assaulted her for an estimated two hours, even taking a break for water. She said he punched her, pulled her hair and choked her throughout the attack.
The woman said she did not consent to being anally penetrated, or the other violence, and implored Marczak to stop.
Afterward, Marczak forced the woman to take a shower and removed the sheets from the bed, put them in the sink with laundry detergent and ordered her to wash them. He also made her unlock her cellphone so he could delete their interactions on social media.
The woman called 911 a few minutes after Marczak left the apartment at about 4 a.m. She was taken to hospital, where sexual assault nurse examiners documented injuries to her face and neck and bruises all over her body.
Marczak testified that everything that went on that night was consensual. He said the complainant never asked him to stop and he believed she was consenting.
He said they had discussed their sexual preferences earlier that evening and the complainant had agreed to give rough sex a try. During her testimony, the woman said no such conversation ever occurred.
Marczak said he had struck other women just as hard while having sex and they had not been injured. He said he watched video of the encounter once but deleted it because he “wasn’t into it.”
In her decision, the judge said the complainant testified in a thorough and logical manner. “She had an excellent recollection of the details of connecting with the accused online, meeting at her apartment for the first time and how the evening unfolded,” Driscoll said.
She said the woman’s testimony was corroborated by other evidence.
“I found her evidence to be internally and externally consistent, credible and reliable,” Driscoll said.
As for the accused, the judge said he readily admitted some uncomfortable things about himself and answered difficult questions during cross-examination. But she noted several internal inconsistencies in his testimony and said parts of his evidence were not plausible.
“I do not accept the evidence of the accused, nor does it raise a reasonable doubt,” she said.
“When I look at all of the evidence presented by the Crown . . . I’m satisfied that the accused assaulted the complainant repeatedly by punching at her face, back and other areas of her body. I’m satisfied that he choked and strangled the complainant while committing a sexual assault.”
She said there was no air of reality to Marczak’s belief that the complainant had communicated consent in advance and no evidence he took reasonable steps to ensure she was consenting to each portion of the activity, including the slapping, the choking, the punching and the penetration.
“The evidence showed that any belief that he had that she was consenting to that activity was the result of recklessness or a mistake about what lawful consent was,” Driscoll said.
“Mr. Marczak was engaged in a highly risky, highly invasive activity. This requires even more care and attention to obtain consent.”
Finally, the judge said that even if she had found that the complainant had consented, any consent would have been vitiated by the bodily harm.
Prosecutor Cory Roberts said he was pleased with the verdict.
“I’ve communicated it to the complainant, who doesn’t live here anymore,” Roberts said. “She’s obviously to be commended for coming forward, going through this difficult process and being so brave to get up on the stand and talk about a very difficult event.”
Marczak has been in custody since July 2023, when he was caught using a camcorder hidden in a cooler bag to surreptitiously record about a dozen girls at Rainbow Haven Beach in Cow Bay.
Police obtained a warrant to examine the contents of the camcorder and Marczak’s cellphone and found evidence he had made similar recordings of females earlier that month at other locations in the Halifax area, including Crystal Crescent Beach.
The cellphone contained about 5,300 images and 16 videos of child pornography. Most of the illicit material showed girls between the ages of six and nine being sexually abused.
Marczak stood trial in Dartmouth provincial court on one count of voyeurism from the Rainbow Haven arrest and was found guilty last April. He was sentenced in September to four months in jail, considered time served, and two years of probation.
In September, he pleaded guilty in Halifax provincial court to five charges of voyeurism and one count of possessing obscene material for the purpose of distribution. He was sentenced in October to five months behind bars, deemed served by his time on remand, and two years of probation.
He also pleaded guilty in Dartmouth provincial court in September to a charge of possessing child pornography. At sentencing in December, he received 15 months in jail, less 69 days of remand credit, followed by two years of probation.