Crown witness describes violent scene involving murder suspect

A witness at the Ashley Bourget murder trial said she was the only one who hit the victim in the head. CTV London's Nick Paparella has more.

A Crown witness who cannot be identified due to a publication ban was on the stand on Thursday as a recorded London police interview from Jan. 15, 2021 was played before the jury.

The court has heard him say that he was there along with a friend at the apartment of the accused Ashley Bourget at 20 Adelaide St. S. when the victim in this case, 59-year-old Grant Norton, was tied up and beaten.

During the interview, he is heard saying, “I didn’t know what I was walking into or nothing.”

He said that he knew Norton but had never met the accused before.

He said the first time he saw Bourget, she was swinging a bat, “The only person I’ve seen hit Grant was Ashley. And she hit him, like time, time and time like at least five, six times with the baseball bat.”

He continued, “She was clubbing him with it. Ashley is the only one I seen put her hands on him.”

The jury has been shown a metal baseball bat which was seized from the apartment.

Grant Edward Norton Grant Norton is seen in this image released by the London Police Service.

The witness said Norton, who was a well known drug dealer, had his head covered but wasn’t knocked out, “Cause he (Norton) was still talking. He’s obviously yelling and screaming.”

He told police he turned to his friend and said, “I’m leaving. I said this like isn’t me. But - you can’t just walk out the door because something would happen to me. That’s just how things go in the criminal world.”

Officers took the man’s DNA, saying they would check it with evidence gathered at the scene.

He responded, “I never put a finger on that man, not even near him.”

031925_Ashley Bourget, Norton murder trial, accused Ashley Morgan Bourget of London, Ont. (Source: Ash Bourget / Facebook)

Norton’s body would eventually be found stuffed in a plastic barrel down a ravine near the Thames River in the area of Jacquleine and Ada Streets in east London in July of 2020.

Arrested months later, the 40-year-old Bourget has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.

Later in the afternoon under cross-examination from defence lawyer Mary Cremer, the witness, who is a daily drug user, was accused of lying about Bourget’s involvement to protect his friends.

He tells the court, “Nope, that’s funny.”

The trial is expected to last two more weeks.