Ghomeshi trial could have chilling effect on other survivors

But as the first week of his trial on four counts of sexual assault and one count of choking unfolded – a separate trial on a single count of sexual assault is scheduled for June – it appears those same interviews that Ms. DeCoutere and her fellow complainants gave to media outlets have been key ingredients in Mr. Ghomeshi’s defence.

Some time later, the woman said she went to a party with Ghomeshi where he repeatedly berated one of her close friends.

The witness, however, could not travel to Toronto to testify in person due to stormy weather in her hometown, so both the Crown and the defence agreed to present the judge with a transcript of the woman’s statement to police as well as Facebook messages she exchanged with DeCoutere.

On Thursday, she told the court that Ghomeshi had choked and slapped her three times in July 2003.

Initially, she said that she and DeCoutere did not discuss the sexual assault allegations, but during cross-examination by Ghomeshi’s lawyer, Marie Henein, she admitted that the two did discuss the case.

Up until last Friday, this was all she ever said about that night – and that since the alleged choking, she had always kept her distance from Ghomeshi.

“When you went on national television to tell your story”, Ms. Henein said, her tone rising, “I’m going to suggest to you that you lied”.

The detail was that she’d taken Ghomeshi home after the King Street dinner, and there, in the safety of her house, they’d messed around and she’d masturbated him, and then he’d fallen asleep for a while, and then he went home.

“I just wanted it gone”.

She says he approached her from behind, rested his arms on her shoulders, and when asked by someone how they knew each other, Ghomeshi said “We’re engaged”.

The trial heard that days after the alleged assault in the park, the woman went out for dinner and drinks with Ghomeshi, and then they went back to her home where she pleasured him with her hand.

She said after the performances had ended, the two were alone on a bench near a baseball diamond in the park.

“There was nothing about this that I wanted to be a part of”.

The woman hadn’t realized her words might be used against her; she told CBC’s Carol Off that she didn’t even think she could still press charges.

“I did”, the woman said. The statement was not disclosed to Henein until Sunday.

“We weren’t”, the woman told court on Monday “It was taking ownership of me in some way that was just surprising”.

It was while they were kissing that the alleged assault took place, court heard.

Following the hearing, the Crown said they consented to an application by the defence to allow a “relevant” portion of the complainant’s sexual history to be testified about during the trial. The 48-year-old former host of CBC Radio’s “Q” acknowledged in 2014 that he engaged in rough sex acts, but said it was consensual.