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The friend told police that after the employee had left, Bhavsar had laid down on top of her, had her drink more vodka and began rubbing her inner thigh. She pushed him away and left as well.

The two girls met up again at a bowling alley, where they were found by police after someone called them about two drunk and upset teenage girls in the parking lot. They were taken to hospital and interviewed by the officers.

Much of this account was not admitted to by Bhavsar. All he would admit to was that he had the employee at his home that night and engaged in unwanted contact with her, which constituted common assault.

He denied that there had been any touching of the employee’s chest at work, and only knew that one of the girls was under age.

Bhavsar’s lawyer, William Vanbridger, suggested the evidence in the case did not support the Crown’s case for sexual assault, which makes it unlikely he would have been convicted of the other charges had it gone to trial.

“I don’t mean to disparage the two victims, but there are a number of text messages going between the two of them, and there is no mention of sexual activity in those messages,” said Vanbridger.

Verbeek disagreed with that assessment, and Lambert said he believed the prosecutor was likely correct that there was a reasonable chance Bhavsar could have been convicted, had it gone to trial.

The case now over, Bhavsar was to return to Ottawa with no plans to return to the Timmins area.

His work visa will expire on Jan. 7, 2017, and while the conviction will not put an immediate end to his aspirations of staying in Canada and eventually becoming a citizen, Vanbridger noted that the discharge won’t necessarily prevent Immigration Services Canada from rejecting him, either.

“It’s something that will be taken into consideration by Immigration Services Canada. But at least it doesn’t bar him from making that application.”