A woman who says she had sex with a St. John's physician in return for prescription drugs has testified Sean Buckingham would pick her up after Narcotics Anonymous meetings.

The woman, the third to testify at Buckingham's trial in Newfoundland Supreme Court, testified Tuesday that she was addicted to painkillers.

Sean Buckingham's trial at Newfoundland Supreme Court is expected to last about eight weeks.
(CBC)

The woman, whose name is protected under a publication ban, is one of seven complainants in Buckingham's trial on 23 counts of sexual assault and drug trafficking.

The woman, who said she never required the drugs for medical reasons, testified that she began having sex with Buckingham when she was 19, only a few months after giving birth to her second child.

To feed her addiction to drugs like OxyContin and Percocet, she told the jury, she agreed to oral sex and intercourse with Buckingham in exchange for prescriptions.

The woman told the court that on several occasions, Buckingham picked her up after Narcotics Anonymous meetings before heading to his house to have sex.

In return, he would write prescriptions for Percocet several days later, she testified.

On one occasion in Buckingham's office, she testified, Buckingham demanded oral sex from her while she was holding her seven-month-old daughter on her knee.

The woman also told the jury a harrowing account of what life can be like with a powerful addiction.

The woman testified that she temporarily lost custody of her infant daughter. After she got her daughter back, she had to persuade child protection authorities that she was clean.

But when she went to St. Clare's hospital, near downtown St. John's, she was still using drugs. To beat tests, she brought someone else's urine with her to hand over as a sample.

Receiving treatment

The woman testified that after she regained custody of her daughter, she received a threatening call from another woman. She said the other woman told her that she had complained to the police about Buckingham and that she wanted her to do the same.

If she didn't, she said she was told, child protection officials would be told that the witness was using drugs again.

The woman testified that she did not at that point go to the police, and eventually told social workers about Buckingham. She lost her child to foster care.

She testified that she recently had another child and is receiving methadone treatment for her addiction to prescription drugs.