EDMONTON - A jury yesterday found a former Edmonton reserve unit soldier not guilty of raping a female recruit, ending what he calls "almost five-and-a-half years of hell."
The acquittal of Orman Boyd Savage, 40, which resulted after just over an hour of deliberations by jurors, came following the second trial for the full-time electrician after the Court of Appeal of Alberta quashed a 2007 conviction earlier this year and ordered a retrial.
A smiling Savage, who spent five months and a week behind bars, said he was happy his ordeal is finally over.
"All I can say is that I am glad to see that this nightmare is over after five and a half years and to finally see justice actually be done," said Savage, a married father of two sons, adding the experience was "really tough" on both him and his family.
"It was a nightmare for me and a nightmare for my family," said Savage. "I knew I was innocent and I wasn't going to stop saying that no matter what happened."
The former reserve sergeant noted the acquittal came the day before Halloween, which is his wedding anniversary.
"I couldn't have hoped to give her a better anniversary present than this," said Savage, who is also hoping to be reinstated into the military. He was released in 2008.
Savage had been accused of sexually assaulting a then-21-year-old female recruit in a bathroom stall at the Debney Armoury on Roper Road after a July 30, 2004, party celebrating the end of a basic training course.
The woman, who can't be identified under a publication ban, testified Savage had raped her, but said there was a lot she couldn't remember due to blacking out and suffering a concussion when her head was slammed into a wall.
Savage told jurors it was the recruit who had come onto him after he had gone into the bathroom to help her because she was vomiting from having drunk too much.
Savage testified the woman had fallen backwards and when he picked her up, she threw her arms around his neck and tried to kiss him.
He said he tried to get away, but hit the toilet and fell backwards. He then saw stars and the next thing he knew, he was on top of the toilet and she was on top of him.
Savage was convicted in provincial court and sentenced to three years in prison after a judge rejected his version as "ludicrous" and accepted the woman's testimony.
However, an appeal court overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial after ruling the judge had failed to properly use the Supreme Court legal test used in cases where both the alleged victim and the accused give opposing versions in their testimony.
