Stranger in bed: victims

Two women in their twenties recounted for a Kelowna jury, Thursday, how a man sexually assaulted them while they slept.

Shea Gardecki, 39, of Peachland, is facing two counts of sexual assault and one count of breaking and entering from an Aug. 23, 2016, incident.

The women testified they were taking a nap in their living room on Highland Drive when they awoke to someone touching them.

“As I was drifting off to sleep I heard footsteps. They sounded like they were trying to be very, very quiet,” said one woman.

She thought it was her friend going to the washroom.

“I felt kind of a movement on the bed … I felt … starting at my lower legs, a touching, nudging feeling,” she said. “Because my legs were together, it was more a hand going up and stopping at my pubic area."

The two women woke up in confusion.

“I saw a big heap in the blanket… like a lump,” she said. “I lifted it up, and there was a man under there smiling back.”

Both women told the jury they had never seen the man before, nor did they know him.

They told the court he was between the two of them, at the foot of the mattress.

“I looked at him and asked him what he was doing there, and he said ‘I am here with a friend,’ and pointed to the couch, which was empty,” one of the women said.

They asked the intruder to leave.

“He crawled out from the covers at the end of the bed and stood up to leave, I noticed his pants were kind of down."

A boyfriend of one of the girls chased the man out of the house, and police later arrested Gardecki with the assistance of a police dog. He was released from custody on bail a few days after.