A former co-chair of Pride Toronto is on trial for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting a young man in August 2012.

Luka Amona, 38, who stepped down from Pride Toronto’s board days after being charged in September 2012, pleaded not guilty to both counts at the start of the judge-alone trial Monday.

In his opening statement, Crown prosecutor Fred Bartley alleged that Amona forced a now 22-year-old man to have anal intercourse at his apartment after a Pride volunteer appreciation party they both attended.

The man, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, testified he and Amona began a purely physical relationship at the end of May 2012.

He broke it off on the weekend of the Pride Parade at the end of June after he found out Amona was also seeing someone in Montreal.

“This isn’t my thing, I’m looking for something more long-term,” he said he told Amona.

Despite the breakup they hooked up again after a beer festival in early August, he said.

Later that month, both men attended the Pride Toronto volunteer party, he said. He told the court he recalls having about 5½ pints of beer between 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., then his memory blacked out.

He testified he was not feeling drunk at the time.

His next memory was of being face-down in Amona’s bed with Amona on top of him, he testified.

“I remember asking him to stop and saying he was hurting me. And I remember him saying he had something that would help,” he told the court.

He said Amona reached over to his bedside table and pulled out “poppers,” an inhalant drug the Crown told the court is used as a muscle relaxant and to enhance sexual pleasure.

Amona placed his hand over the man’s mouth, forcing him to inhale the substance through his nostrils, the man continued.

Then his memory blacked out again and his next recollection was of him saying: “Please Luka, please stop, it really hurts,” he told the court.

He said Amona responded: “I don’t care that it hurts, I’m not going to stop.”

For a third time, his memory blacked out and he woke up in the morning with no memories of the night before, he said.

He testified Amona asked him to have sex, but he refused, noticing that he was in “a lot of pain.”

Memories of the night began to surface after he left Amona’s apartment and he began to feel ill, he said. He went to the hospital with a friend where a rape kit was performed. Feeling overwhelmed, he did not report the incident to the police until mid-September, he said.

Under cross-examination by defence lawyer Paul Mergler, the slim, tall man denied feeling slighted after learning Amona had another lover in Montreal.

He also rejected Mergler’s suggestion the sex was consensual.

Mergler pointed to two text messages sent from the man’s phone to Amona’s at 7:26 that night saying: “did you leave?” with a sad face emoticon and “where are you?”

The man said he does not recall sending those texts but does not dispute they came from his phone.

The man also admitted to previously telling Amona they shouldn’t be at parties together where they were drinking because he was attracted to Amona and “things happened.”

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In a video statement to police submitted as evidence Monday, another party attendee said the complainant in the case was obnoxious and intoxicated during the party, though not so much he would not be served. The witness said the young man also made a pass at him, which he rebuffed.

The complainant told the court he does not remember this.

The trial continues.