Witness in ex-CBC host assault trial says she misled police

As week two of embattled broadcaster Jian Ghomeshi’s sexual assault trial kicked off, the case brought another twist: two of the three accusers are friends.

The 48-year-old who rose to fame as host of CBC Radio One’s popular current affairs program Q stands accused of four counts of sexual assault and one count of overcoming resistance by choking.

One of them, sent a few hours after DeCoutere alleges Ghomeshi assaulted her, expressed a desire to have sex with him.

Defence lawyer Marie Henein drew gasps from the packed Toronto courthouse Friday when she revealed complainant Lucy DeCoutere had written to Ghomeshi in the days, weeks and even years after she said he violently choked and slapped her multiple times in his Toronto home.

The former CBC Radio host’s lawyer advised the court this morning about her concerns that the third complainant gave a new statement to police on Friday. “I’ll do whatever I can to put this predator where he belongs”, and said she wanted this “piece of s-t to pay for all he’s done”.

She was also concerned about the implications of her reporting for her relationship with a family member involved in the arts community.

The next day, she said she made a decision to go to investigators to update her statement so that prosecutors would not be “blindsided” by details they had never heard before. The witness had said she didn’t have any contact with Ghomeshi after the alleged attacks, but admitted to sending the emails in order to bait him to respond, so she could question him about the assaults.

During the festival, she said she and Ghomeshi went out on a date at a restaurant on The Danforth and some time after the dinner date, she said she saw him once again at park where the festival was taking place.

“I wasn’t an isolated incident”.

In some of the messages, DeCoutere instructs the woman to contact her lawyer and publisher, and also offered a “detailed and lengthy breakdown” of her own meetings with the Crown. DeCoutere, who waived her right to have her name not published, had said she forgot about her emails.

“You think, ‘He is being really nice, maybe I misread it. Maybe if I give him another chance, maybe it will be different, ‘” she said.

She says that at some point, while he was kissing her, she felt his hand and his teeth on her shoulder before his hands moved around her neck.

Jenny Wright of the St. John’s Status of Women Council says less that 10 percent report sexual assault and the current court proceedings are making it very hard for many victims.

Heinen said the woman reported the alleged assault to police in December 2014, and the correspondence with DeCoutere continued until September 2015.

After the alleged incident, the woman says she met Ghomeshi again for dinner and drinks and then they went back to her place for “romantic” interactions. Her last words to him before she got out of the vehicle were: “You are f-ing insane”. There was no discussion of consent, she testified. She said she didn’t tell police because she wasn’t specifically asked, because she didn’t think it was “relevant”, and also because it was “embarrassing”. “It wasn’t, ‘I’m gonna talk to the press before I talk to police, ‘” she told Ms. Henein during cross-examination on Thursday.

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