zhzh
九袋长老
- 注册
- 2003-10-17
- 消息
- 1,644
- 荣誉分数
- 280
- 声望点数
- 243
An Ontario Court judge has acquitted former CBC Radio host Jian Ghomeshi on four counts of sexual assault and one count of choking, saying there were significant issues raised about the credibility of complainants.
Judge William Horkins said the evidence from all three women not only suffered from inconsistencies, but was "tainted by outright deception."
After Horkins delivered his ruling, Ghomeshi, 48, hugged his mother, sister and other supporters who sat behind him in the courtroom.
The trial, which began in Toronto on Feb. 1, 2016, lasted eight days. Ghomeshi had pleaded not guilty to all the charges, all related to assaults alleged to have taken place from 2002 to 2003.
The identities of two of the complainants in the case are protected under a publication ban, but actress Lucy DeCoutere, also an air force captain, went to court to lift the ban on her name.
The first woman to testify told court that Ghomeshi had pulled her hair and punched her in the head at his home after a dinner date. DeCoutere said the former Q host had choked and slapped her at his home. The third woman said Ghomeshi had squeezed her neck and covered her mouth while they were kissing on a park bench.
But it was later revealed in court that each woman had had contact with Ghomeshi following the alleged assaults and that details of this contact had not been provided to police or the Crown in their initial statements.
The first witness had told police and the court she had no subsequent contact with Ghomeshi after two alleged attacks but later acknowledged she sent him two emails and a picture of herself in a bikini more than a year later. The woman said she sent the emails to bait Ghomeshi into calling her to explain his actions.
DeCoutere had told the court that she had no romantic interest in Ghomeshi after her alleged assault and only saw him at industry functions. But it was later revealed in court that hours after the alleged sexual assault, she had sent him an email saying she wanted to have sex with him and sent him a handwritten letter days later saying she was sad they didn't spend the night together.
The third woman, who told police she would only feel safe being out with Ghomeshi in public after her alleged assault, failed to disclose that days later, she had a consensual sexual encounter with him.
In his final argument, Crown attorney Michael Callaghan argued that the witnesses had provided explanations for some of of the inconsistencies, delayed disclosures or omissions in their evidence. He stressed that not withstanding vigorous cross-examination, all three "were unshaken" in their allegations that they were sexually assaulted by Ghomeshi.
But Ghomeshi's lawyer seized on those omissions, saying there testimony was "so riddled with inconsistencies and improbabilities and proven lies under oath that it cannot be said to prove anything."
最后编辑:
