Accused killer testifies she's 'afraid of retaliation from the mob'

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Ashley Bourget said she’s putting her safety and reputation at risk by taking the stand at her first-degree murder trial.

“I’m afraid of retaliation from the mob,” she testified Tuesday as the defence began its case in the Superior Court jury trial now in its fifth week.

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“I’m also afraid of what people on the streets and my peers might think of me . . . I have a lot of fears about my children and family’s safety.”

Bourget, 41, has pleaded not guilty in the death of Grant Norton, 59, whose decomposing body was found on July 19, 2020, near the Thames River in a white plastic barrel near Bourget’s apartment, where the Crown says he was tortured, beaten and stabbed to death on July 6, 2020.

Since the trial began, the jury has been given a close-up view of London’s drug subculture.

Through questioning from her lawyer Mary Cremer, Bourget, a self-described drug dealer and addict, said she bought drugs from Norton, a large-scale supplier with links to Hamilton mobsters, over the years.

That business relationship was altered after Bourget said Norton drugged and sexually assaulted her twice. Bourget said she found other suppliers and only met Norton on rare occasions in public places, but she never reported the alleged sexual assaults to police.

“On the streets, there’s a hidden rule that we just don’t talk to cops,” Bourget said.

The never-talk-to-the-cops rule came up again in the hours surrounding Norton’s death, when Bourget said she agreed to lure him to her Adelaide Street apartment at the request of Adam Wade, a fellow drug dealer with a reputation for violence.

Bourget said she contacted Norton and offered to sell him a kilogram of crystal methamphetamine. Norton was more than happy to buy the drugs, known as ice on the street, because there was a shortage of it in London that had driven up the price, Bourget said.

Wade claimed Norton owned his family money and he was going to take him to Hamilton to retrieve it. There were two other people inside Bourget’s apartment with her and Norton when Wade, who was armed with a gun, and two masked men showed up, court heard.

Bourget said Wade ordered her to go to her room and turn on a movie with the volume up. Bourget said she looked out into the living room a few times and saw Norton tied up on the sofa surrounded by several people.

“I could hear a lot of screaming going on,” she said, adding she looked out again to see Wade was holding a gun in Norton’s mouth.

A short time later, Bourget said Norton was covered in blood and wasn’t moving while Wade passed out money retrieved from a cooler Norton had brought to the others in the apartment. Wade ordered Bourget to leave the house and take a bike ride, she said.

The jury previously heard evidence from a witness who told police Bourget had injected Norton with drugs and then beat him on the head with a baseball bat while he was tied up. Another witness described how Bourget called him the next day to help her remove the body.

Asked by Cremer whether Bourget called police to report what she saw in her apartment, she again cited the rule of the streets.

“That’s one thing you don’t do: you don’t involve the police in any kind of criminal activity,” she said.

Bourget will continue her testimony when the trial resumes Wednesday.

dcarruthers@postmedia.com