The young Vanier sex-trade worker thought she was going to die in the backseat of Jacques Rouschop’s pickup truck. 
 
 Jacques (Porkchop) Rouschop was a regular client, but this time was different, the 26-year-old woman told court at the career thief’s rape trial on Monday. It was the summer of 2013 — she doesn’t recall the date — and she said she was dope sick so she called Rouschop, 44, with the hope of getting a trick so she could buy either crack or fentanyl. She started doing dope at 11 and shooting up at 13. She’s been clean for six months, she told court. 
 
 She was dozing off in Rouschop’s pickup, she testified, as they drove to an industrial lot in Ottawa’s west end. 
 
 I couldn’t breathe. I was trying to get free but I couldn’t. … I thought I was going to die 
 
 “I knew him so I didn’t think anything bad would happen,” she testified. 
 
 It was supposed to be just oral sex, but he wanted more, she testified, and when she refused, he put her in a choke-hold and pressed his weight down on her. (The accused weighs around 350 pounds.) 
 
 “I couldn’t breathe. I was trying to get free but I couldn’t. … I thought I was going to die.” 
 
 She said she felt like she was drowning as she was raped from behind, she testified. 
 
 She says she also remembers him laughing. 
 
 “I felt completely hopeless and scared,” she said. 
 
 She then said she lost consciousness. 
 
 The woman is the second to testify against Rouschop, on trial for vicious sex attacks against them. 
 
 She told the jury — six women, six men — that Rouschop lost control and grabbed her pants, but under cross-examination by defence lawyer Natasha Calvinho she later said she wasn’t wearing pants. Instead, she said she was wearing stockings and a dress, and originally told police in 2013 that she had a jacket on, too, but said on Monday that she wasn’t wearing one. 
 
 There were other things she couldn’t remember — notably the size of Rouschop’s penis (measuring two inches erect, court has heard). “You just see so many of them … you just close your eyes and do it,” she replied. 
 
 I don’t remember the little details, but I know it happened 
 
 She also didn’t recall the accused’s umbilical hernia, around the size of a baseball. 
 
 Calvinho established that the complainant’s memory was bad when it came to ever-changing details. 
 
 But the witness shot back: ” I don’t remember the little details, but I know it happened.” 
 
 The trial continues Tuesday in courtroom No. 32 at the Elgin Street courthouse with Superior Court Justice Robert Smith presiding. ||||| The lawyer defending an alleged choker-rapist told a jury on Thursday that Jacques Rouschop couldn’t physically have committed the vicious sex crimes he’s accused of because his hernia “makes it too painful to have sex from behind, his stomach is too large and his penis is way, way too small.” 
 
 The first defence witness, a registered nurse, testified that she volunteered to take Rouschop’s measurements. She testified that Rouschop is five feet six inches tall, with a 66-inch waist, 31-inch thighs, and a one-inch penis, measuring approximately two inches when erect. The nurse also measured his umbilical hernia, saying it was 3.5 inches by 3.25 inches. (There is no way of knowing his exact weight because the scales at the Innes Road jail only go up to 320 pounds.) The court was also shown photographs of a naked Rouschop, who sat in the prisoner’s dock statue-still as some jurors took notes about his most intimate measurements. 
 
 Rouschop, a 44-year-old career thief, is on trial for the 2013 rape and choking of two Vanier woman. Both were sex trade workers and testified as Crown witnesses, recalling horrifying accounts of being attacked and choked until they blacked out in the backseat of Rouschop’s pickup truck in an unknown industrial lot. 
 
 Rouschop has pleaded not guilty, and on Thursday, his lawyer, Natasha Calvinho, launched his defence. 
 
 In her opening statements to the jury, Calvinho was quick to acknowledge that Rouschop has a criminal record that stretches four decades. 
 
 “He is far from a perfect man. He has made mistakes. He has committed crimes. He has spent time in jail and has a significant criminal record. He is known to local police and is someone who has been in and out of jail most of his adult life,” Calvinho told the jury. 
 
 She said that Rouschop couldn’t have committed the crimes as described in court because of his physical limitations. 
 
 The lawyer then addressed the elephant in the room. 
 
 “Due to his weight (around 400 pounds at the time) and his appearance, he will be the first to tell you that he has had a lot of trouble attracting members of the opposite sex, and that getting a woman’s attention, let alone having sex, was not something that happened very often for him. 
 
 “Despite his lack of physical attractiveness, he still had needs — sexual needs. And he turned to the services of sex trade workers,” Calvinho said. 
 
 The defence lawyer tried to portray Rouschop as more than a john, telling the jury that he cared about the Vanier sex trade workers, drove them around, bought them groceries, and “helped them anyway he could.” 
 
 The lawyer said that in the case of one of the complainants, it went far beyond a money-for-sex relationship. “He cared for her. He brought her to his home for sleepovers and dinners with his mom,” Calvinho said. 
 
 The lawyer also told the jury that it is Rouschop’s firm belief that Ottawa detectives investigating the unsolved 2013 killing of sex trade worker Amy Paul targeted him because they suspected he killed her. 
 
 “He believes he is the subject of a witch hunt,” Calvinho told the jury. 
 
 The jury has heard that detectives working the Paul case went to great lengths to successfully secure formal statements from the sex trade workers against Rouschop. The charges — two counts of aggravated sexual assault and choking — that Rouschop is on trial for now were yielded from the investigation into Paul’s killing, which remains unsolved. Ottawa police publicly linked Rouschop to Paul’s homicide in December 2013 but have never charged him. They also searched his home for Paul’s shoes, pants and cell phone, according to records obtained by the Citizen. 
 
 Rouschop was charged with rape and choking less than 24 hours after Ottawa police announced a $50,000 reward in the unsolved Paul homicide investigation in December 2013. Both women in this case testified that they didn’t initially want to come forward but did so after police strongly urged them to, court has heard. They also testified that they didn’t come forward because of the reward, which remains unclaimed. 
 
 gdimmock@postmedia.com 
 
 www.twitter.com/crimegarden ||||| Jacques “Porkchop” Rouschop has waited almost three years to defend himself against rape-and-choking charges, and starting Thursday morning, an Ottawa jury will start hearing defence evidence — including the “remarkably small” size of his penis — that he hopes will finally clear his name. 
 
 Rouschop, 44, is on trial for the 2013 rape and choking of two Vanier women who prostituted themselves to feed severe crack and fentanyl addictions. They have both testified against Rouschop, telling the jury horrifying accounts of being choked to the point of unconsciousness in the backseat of his pickup truck. 
 
 Both women told the jury that they are now clean, one for six months, after saying they kicked the habit on their own. 
 
 One woman revealed on the stand that she didn’t think she was raped. The other woman testified that she was raped by Rouschop, a longtime client who she said suddenly lost control. She told court she doesn’t recall the date or where they were parked and the details of her account have changed. 
 
 She originally told police that she was wearing a jacket, but told court this week that she wasn’t, and she testified that she was wearing pants, the ones Rouschop allegedly pulled down, only to later say that she was wearing a skirt or a dress with stockings. But she was firm under cross-examination, and said that while she doesn’t remember those details, she definitely remembers that she was raped and that she felt she was going to die in that backseat, somewhere in the city’s west end. 
 
 Neither wanted to file a report against Rouschop, for reasons ranging from humiliation to fear of reprisals. The jury — six women, six men — has heard that Ottawa police detectives investigating the unsolved 2013 homicide of Amy Paul, a 27-year-old Vanier sex-trade worker, went to great lengths to secure formal complaints, and later their testimony, from the sex-trade workers. 
 
 Rouschop was charged less than 24 hours after Ottawa police announced a $50,000 reward in the unsolved homicide of Amy Paul. Both have testified that the reward had nothing to do with them coming forward, which they did months before it was publicly posted. 
 
 Under cross-examination by Rouschop’s defence lawyer Natasha Calvinho, neither complainant could recall that the accused’s penis is “pretty darn small,” measuring around two inches erect. 
 
 The nurse who measured Rouschop’s penis at the Innes Road jail is expected to be the first defence witness to take the stand Thursday. 
 
 The rape-and-choking trial has been overshadowed by the Amy Paul investigation because Rouschop is not just any accused. In a rare move, Ottawa police publicly linked Rouschop to the Amy Paul case in December 2013, announcing that the rape charges now before the courts were yielded specifically from the homicide investigation. Police told reporters they wanted to question him. (Police also executed a search warrant at his home with the hopes of finding Paul’s pants, shoes and cell phone.) 
 
 Despite an intense and expensive investigation, Rouschop has never been charged in the Amy Paul killing — nor has anyone else. 
 
 Rouschop has maintained his innocence in all of this, and denies knowing Amy Paul, let alone killing her. He also says he didn’t choke or rape the two women now testifying against him. 
 
 gdimmock@postmedia.com 
 
 http://www.twitter.com/crimegarden
– An accused rapist in Canada is defending himself with the argument that he is physically incapable of the crime. Specifically, says the lawyer for Jacques Rouschop, "his stomach is too large and his penis is way, way too small," reports the Ottawa Citizen. The 44-year-old is accused of raping and choking two sex workers in 2013 in his pickup truck. But his first defense witness was a registered nurse who took the suspect's measurements in jail and testified that Rouschop's penis was about 2 inches when erect. The 5-foot-6 Rouschop also weighed about 400 pounds at the time of the alleged attacks and has an umbilical hernia about the size of a baseball, reports the National Post. To buttress his case, jurors were shown photographs of his naked body. “Due to his weight and his appearance, he will be the first to tell you that he has had a lot of trouble attracting members of the opposite sex, and that getting a woman’s attention, let alone having sex, was not something that happened very often for him," says his lawyer. She acknowledges that Rouschop, a career thief, did indeed visit sex workers, but she maintains that he could not have raped a woman from behind, as one of the sex workers testified. The allegations stem from a police investigation into the 2013 murder of another sex worker, and while police have publicly linked Rouschop to that crime, they have not charged him, reports the Ottawa Sun. “He believes he is the subject of a witch hunt,” says his attorney. (This study defined "normal" penis length.)