DeCoutere is the second complainant to take the stand at Ghomeshi’s trial.
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“Regardless, Mr. Ghomeshi choked me with no consent because he never asked for it. He slapped me with no consent because he never asked for it”, she reaffirmed. She said she went out with him again that weekend and sent him flowers when she returned to her home in Halifax.
Defence lawyer Marie Henein revealed the Royal Canadian Air Force captain sent Ghomeshi an email mere hours after the alleged assault saying “you kicked my a- last night and that makes me want to f- your brains out. You challenge me and point to stuff that has not been pulled out in a very long time”.
“That still doesn’t change the fact that Mr. Ghomeshi assaulted me”, DeCoutere said.
The former host star of CBC radio is accused by three women, four counts of sexual assault and one count of attempting to choke, suffocate or strangle a person in order to overcome its resistance. He has pleaded not guilty to all counts, and has always denied any wrongdoing.
DeCoutere read the letter’s sign off at the request of Henein.
Henein also showed her a photo the actress sent to Ghomeshi showing her simulating fellatio on a beer bottle.
In yet another email, entitled “brace yourself”, DeCoutere tells Ghomeshi that she plans to call him and ask him to “play” with her in October 2003, months after he allegedly choked and slapped her repeatedly in his home.
DeCoutere was asked about several apparently flirtatious interactions she had with Ghomeshi; she testified that she wanted to regain some level of control over a frightening situation.
“Violence against women is not about the behaviour of the woman, it is not about how they cope with the assault or the details they commit to memory in the aftermath”.
“It’s so age-old that the woman has to be this hygienic, innocent, ideal bystander in these cases that it’s getting a little time worn”, she said.
“What happened was no sexual assault”, she said incredulously.
She stated that it didn’t mean that Ghomeshi had not assaulted her, and that she had sent what she thought was a amusing photo to other people as well.
In another email, DeCoutere asks Ghomeshi for a chance encounter in a broom closet in advance of seeing him again at the same Banff conference where she’d met him a year earlier in June 2003. It said: “I love your hands, Lucy”.
She said her contact with Ghomeshi was her way of “humanizing” him and “neutralizing” the negative experience she had with him.
Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, author of All the Broken Things, says she is among those feeling traumatized.
On Thursday, Henein also accused DeCoutere of withholding information that indicated she’s been dishonest about her and Ghomeshi’s relationship.
Henein also questioned why DeCoutere didn’t told police about emails she exchanged with Ghomeshi after the alleged assault and why she only told the prosecution about them this past Tuesday.
DeCoutere said she believed her first statement to police was the first step in a longer exposition that would be teased out later by the Crown.
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Ms. Decoutere replied that she did not understand the importance of these communications after the alleged incident.
