Sex offender alleges police violent to him

2-27-2009 Canada:

A high-risk convicted sex offender says he thought police were playing a "cruel joke" when they accused him of molesting his girlfriend's eight-year-old son following a day at the Red River Exhibition last summer.

"I was in shock, I thought this was a dream. I didn't do anything to anybody, I know that 100 per cent," Brent Atatise told a judge Thursday as he took the witness stand in his own defence.

Atatise, 30, has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault, saying he's been falsely accused. He also claims several Winnipeg police officers viciously assaulted him in the parking garage at the Public Safety Building following his arrest.

"They opened the door (of the cruiser car) and said 'We got the rapist in the back seat, anyone wanna take a shot at him?'" said Atatise. One officer smashed him in the head with the car door and repeatedly punched him in the face while another hit him in the stomach, he said.

"They just kept calling me an (expletive) skinner, saying I liked to touch little boys. I told them they must be joking, that I didn't rape anybody," said Atatise.

Atatise said he thought he had a good relationship with the alleged victim's mother, whom he met while taking a welding course in the spring of 2008. He said the woman invited him to come with her two kids to the Ex for Aboriginal Day last June and he reluctantly agreed to come along, knowing he was on probation with conditions not to be alone with children.

Atatise said they had a fun "family day" together that ended when the woman ran out of money. They all took the bus home, and he said the woman got mad when he rejected her invitation to get a pizza and all spend the night together. Atatise said he was worried about his court-ordered conditions so he told the woman he wanted to spend the night drinking with friends.

"I was always having to lie when she wanted to bring the children over, or have me come to their place, because of all my conditions," he said. "I know she got mad (that day) and must have thought I was breaking up with her."

It was just hours later that police showed up and said he was under arrest for molesting the little boy.

The victim testified earlier this week, telling court he was molested on three occasions in one day. The boy said Atatise also threatened to kill his entire family if he told anyone what happened inside a teepee and washroom at the Ex, as well as a bathroom at Portage Place Shopping Centre.

The Crown will cross-examine Atatise on Friday morning. ..News Source.. by Mike McIntyre