A woman sexually assaulted by a man who used a sleep disorder known as “sexsomnia” as part of his defence at trial has been awarded just over $210,000 in damages by the Supreme Court of B.C.
In convicting Karl Richard Antonius of one count of sexual assault in July 2020, now-retired Justice Austin Cullen didn’t dismiss his “impressive array of parasomnias” — conditions that cause abnormal experiences or behaviours during sleep — but rejected the notion that his newly-diagnosed history with them supported an argument that “his conduct was involuntary.”
Antonius, then 53 years old, was sentenced to two years less a day that October and was granted day parole after serving seven months and five days, according to Justice Warren B. Milman’s recently published lawsuit decision.
The assault in question occurred more than a decade ago on Sept. 27, 2015, in Vancouver when Antonius, in his late 40s at the time, was on a blind date with a 28-year-old woman whose identity is protected by a publication ban and is only identified in his conviction and civil suit decision as T.K.
During the trial, she testified to having no interest in having sex with Antonius that night, but trusted him enough to sleep next to him at his hotel apartment after realizing a friend had her house keys. Wearing a t-shirt and shorts he supplied, the woman got into the bed and lay on her left side and was joined then by Antonius, who touched her bottom at least once and also attempted to move the shorts down.
She said she denied his advances, swatting his hand away at one point, and he seemed to accept that she was only interested in sleeping. When she awoke in the same position some time later, however, she found Antonius had removed her shorts and her underwear and was having unprotected sex with her.
“T.K. said she was ‘kind of was still waking up and not really sure of what was happening.’ She ‘was like slowly coming out of sleep’, ‘was kind of in shock’, and ‘didn’t know what to do,” Cullen summarized. “She said it took a moment for her to realize what was happening and she just froze.”
Antonius finished, rose without saying anything and left the bedroom. The two soon parted ways without mentioning what had occurred and T.K. never responded to his calls or messages thereafter.
When charged in 2016, Antonius told police he thought she was lying in an attempt to extort money from him and “attributed the finding of his DNA on her to the fact she was wearing his boxer shorts and the absence of semen being consistent with his belief that she was not being truthful,” Cullen wrote.
But three years into the case, Antonius began to wonder if T.K. had dreamt about the sexual assault and said his research led him to the topic of sexsomnia, which he said gets “lumped together” with “sleep eating,” something he did but was never formally diagnosed with.
“As a result of what he has learned about sexsomnia, he now accepts that he did have sexual intercourse with T.K.,” Cullen wrote. “He said that he feels terrible for her, terrible for himself, but especially for her.”
Several witnesses called by the defence at trial recounted stories of a fully-nude Antonius sleepwalking and sleep eating. One witness, a former sexual partner, testified that he appeared to initiate sex while asleep, only to roll over and resume sleeping immediately after.
Three medical experts also diagnosed him with parasomnia, two of whom cast a degree of doubt as to whether it was an incident of parasomnia and a third who categorically said it wasn’t.
Cullen accepted that “those experiencing parasomnia episodes can perform relatively complex tasks” but said Antonius’s actions with T.K. “involve consciousness of the context in which it was occurring.”
“The accused had to undress himself, undress her by removing her boxer shorts and her panties, and initiate sexual intercourse with her without awakening her,” the judge wrote, noting it “implies a cautious approach and a conscious purpose.”
Before he was convicted, Antonius was removed as President of Vancouver-based Boreal Metals Corp., a mineral exploration company focused on historical mining project areas in Sweden and Norway, after the allegations against him and the sexsomnia defence came to light in November 2019. The company said its board of directors “had not been made aware of the nature of charges made against Mr. Antonius or his defence to them.”
In an affidavit for her sexual battery civil suit filed in November 2022, T.K. said she was worried that Antonius impregnated her or “given her the herpes virus, with which she was diagnosed four years later,” Justice Warren B. Milman wrote.
She described herself as a “confident” and “outgoing person” who liked spending time with friends and meeting new people before the assault.
“Now, after 11 years, she describes herself as a ‘shadow of her former self,’” as she struggles to maintain relationships, forge new ones, and trust people, men in particular.
“Her world has become much smaller because she is reluctant to venture from her safe haven at home. Her view is that the defendant robbed her of her safety and sense of self.”
Many of her struggles are also documented in an affidavit filed by her mother, who said her daughter “has not been able to move forward with her life.”
Antonius failed to file any response to the court, resulting in a default judgment against him in October 2024.
T.K. had been seeking $250,000 in non-pecuniary damages (pain and suffering), but was awarded $200,000, which includes a $50,000 in aggravating component due to the betrayal of trust and the “profound impact… on the course” of her life.
Milman denied her request for $50,000 in punitive damages, finding that the trial judge imposed an “adequate” sentence.
She will also receive $7,640.62 for counselling already obtained and another $3,042 for future sessions, for a total award of $210,682.62, plus the cost of her legal fees.
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