By Will Young
A Kamloops, BC woman who says she was drugged and brutally raped at Vancouver’s Twelve West nightclub sued the business Thursday for negligence and destroying evidence of the incident.
(ThinkPol does not identify victims of sexual assault without their permission.)
The 27-year-old woman is claiming $18 million in general damages, loss of income and loss of earning capacity, future loss of earning capacity, and cost of future care.
The victim claims that on October 23, 2015 Twelve West staff found her in an immobile state on a couch.
They allegedly picked her up and place her on the kitchen floor instead of calling for an ambulance, the complaint states.
The woman alleges that the popular Granville Street nightclub did not lock the alleyway door to the nightclub, which allowed her assailant to gain entry to the kitchen and brutally rape her.
Twelve West allegedly tampered with and destroyed evidence, according to the lawsuit.
“Twelve West did not provide the Surveillance of the kitchen and back alley door to the Vancouver police department officers during their investigation,” the woman claims in the suit. “5 cameras are present in and around the area where the plaintiff was sexually assaulted and raped, the cameras have recorded the plaintiff being sexually assaulted and raped but none of the recordings were handed to the officers of VPD.”
Medical records show the assailant left deep imprints in the victim’s breast implants and she suffered a serious infection in her vaginal area that lasted for months following the sexual assault, the Statement of Claim alleges.
The victim claims that she is seeking justice for what has happened to her, and wants to make sure no other suffers the same fate.
Twelve West is owned by prominent Vancouver restaurateur Peter Girges, who is also facing a lawsuit filed in November 2016[1]Vancouver Registry S1610338 over allegations that he brutally assaulted patrons of the nightclub including a Vancouver-based model in June 2015.
(One of the alleged victims, who is not a plaintiff in this case, has asked us not to identify them. ThinkPol has agreed to their request.)
Twelve West management allegedly deleted security camera footage of that incident as well, the 2016 complaint states.
A representative from the nightclub told ThinkPol that they were not aware of the most recent lawsuit.
None of the allegations against Twelve West or Peter Girges has been tested in court.
[Photo credit: GS+/Flickr]
References [ + ]
| 1. | ↑ | Vancouver Registry S1610338 |