According to Richmond News on October 7, the BC Supreme Court may rule next week on a case involving a former ballet school art director accused of sexually assaulting a teenage student. Defendant David Chaplin Beales denies multiple charges between 2019 and 2022, including sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, and providing explicit material to minors. Among these, sexual interference refers to sexual contact with minors under 16 years old, while sexual exploitation refers to the defendant having sexual contact with 16- or 17-year-old youths based on trust or authoritative relationships such as teachers and students. After closing arguments last week, the court is expected to continue hearing next Wednesday. The details of the incident<\/p>\n
At the time of the incident, Beales was serving as the artistic director of the Maple Leaf School of Russian Ballet in Vic West, and the case involved a 15-year-old female student at the time. Defence attorney Jordan Watt pointed out that when Beales had sex with the student, the other party was already 16 years old, the legal age of consent, and the two were no longer teacher-student or had a power relationship. The identity of the dancer involved is protected by a ban. She testified that in December 2019, she had her first sexual encounter with Beales at age 15, who was in her thirties at the time. She also stated that on the morning of December 19, 2019, she went to a dance studio to pick up items she had dropped, and Beales actively guided her hands to touch her erect genitals, which then led to oral sex. Beales denied having any sexual activity that morning. According to Watt, Beales testified that the dancer came to express his love for him that day; the two were just talking before the woman left for school. Watt emphasized that the two only developed a sexual relationship after the woman turned 16.<\/p>\n
In his closing statement, Watt also noted that Beales’ recollections showed that before officially becoming a couple, they had romantic experiences such as going for drives at Beacon Hill Park and watching movies at Beales’ home, until they officially started dating in April 2020 and only had sex two months later. Watt stated that the court was indeed hearing a case involving a dance teacher and a student, but he believed the teacher-student relationship ended when the two began to develop an intimate relationship. Beales denied having sex with the student at the dance studio, stating that his mother was also living in the classroom during the incident. Watt also said that at the beginning of the incident, Beales, a father of three, had just separated from his wife, and the school had already been transferred to his parents. Beales had publicly dated another dancer<\/p>\n
Shortly after their separation, Beales publicly dated another dancer, Clare Gillesse. Gillesse is currently the Artistic Director of the Maple Leaf School of Russian Ballet. Lawyer Watt hinted that after Beales started a new relationship with Gillesse, the dancer involved developed jealousy. During cross-examination, he told the woman: “You want Mr. Beales to end his relationship with Clare, you want to be a unique partner with Mr. Beales.” \u201d The woman denied it and asked, “Are you asking me, as a 15-year-old student, if I want to be alone with my teacher, Mr. Beales?” \u201d She also said she “doesn’t have any special feelings” about Beales’ relationship with Gillesse. The dancer said that when Gillesse taught at Maple Leaf in the evenings, he would come to Beales’ house to have sex with him. Watt believes that between December 2019 and February 2020, Beales was extremely weak due to lung disease and did not participate in dance school affairs, so it was impossible for him to have sex privately with students.<\/p>\n
He also pointed out that the woman’s claim of oral sex on December 16, 2019, was “baseless,” only because Beales praised her for a recent performance and suddenly recalled the memory. Watt said, “She just suddenly appeared and then remembered giving him oral sex.” \u201d He added that the correspondence between Beales and the dancer matched Beales’s statement, indicating that the woman had feelings for him and proactively expressed a desire to have a heart-to-heart talk. The woman told the court that they had exclusive nicknames and had mentioned that she had even made a list of names for their future child. She said she was pregnant at age 16 but had a miscarriage. Watt emphasized that one should not conclude that Beales has always been in a position of power simply because she was her teacher. He stated that although dancers are attracted by Beales’s professionalism, Beales does not have the power to enforce obedience or enforce consequences.<\/p>\n
Watt said Beales stopped teaching dancers after June 2019, while Beales continued dancing and teaching assistants at school until the school clos ed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Their relationship ended in November 2020. Watt considers claims that the two still had sex after November 2020 “completely uncredible,” as Beales was away from Victoria most of the time at the time, and even when he occasionally returned to town, he lived with his mother and cared for their three children. However, the woman said that on weekends when Beales returned to Victoria, the two would have sex in her bedroom at home, usually before the children were dropped off. Watt said that by mid-2021, when they reconciled, the dancer was 17 years old, ready to drop out and leave Victoria to live independently and attend dance school. He believed that at this point, there was no longer any power relationship between the two. At the same time, their communications at this stage also showed they were in a long-distance relationship. Inspector: Beales’s testimony contradicts itself multiple times<\/p>\n
Prosecutor Rebecca Watmough stated that Beales’s testimony contradicted itself multiple times during direct testimony and cross-examination, and the court should deny it. She pointed out that some of Beales’ responses were evasive, some of which were unreasonable, and clearly contradicted the Signal app chat records Beales himself admitted. In his closing argument, Watmough spent about half an hour listing the inconsistent testimonies Beales gave during cross-examinations. She also questioned Beales’ claim that the conversation with the dancers on December 16, 2019, lasted only 5 to 10 minutes, calling it “illogical.” Watmough pointed out that when Beales insisted they only had sex in his bedroom and living room, and when chat records mentioned “intimate acts in hidden locations,” Beales responded that all of this happened at home.<\/p>\n
During cross-examination, Beales also admitted that he was unsure of the exact time he had sex with the dancer. Watmough stated that the court should focus on the conversation in March 2023 where the woman confronted Beales via the Signal app. The woman wrote: “You slept with me when I was 15!” \u201d “Actually, you had sex with me when I was 15. You made me fall in love with you when I was 14, and I was feeling down and on the verge of breaking down…… “You know, I didn’t want to recall our relationship before because I was ashamed of letting this happen. But now I am no longer ashamed. I was really angry, and that anger actually made me feel a huge sense of relief. \u201d Watmough believes that Beales’ response, “Sorry, I believe you say age doesn’t matter,” and “Sorry, I thought I was everything you wanted” should be considered guilty statements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"