The witness was asked about whether Ghomeshi smashed her head against a window on their first date, something she said previously.
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“It felt nearly like a rage that wasn’t there the second before he did it”, said the woman. “And if you missed that… here is my phone number”, Henein said.
It was the first time that Henein’s pugnacious style was on full display, after an opening day dominated by the first witness’s emotional testimony that Ghomeshi had suddenly attacked her on two occasions.
“I remember thinking: he’s amusing, he’s intelligent, he opens doors, he’s a ideal gentleman”. “I was surprised by how violent the allegations against him were”, stated Jim Hounslow, an employee of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and one of several of Ghomeshi’s accusers, told the Guardian.
On a “happy night” a few weeks later, she accepted his invitation to go alone with him to his house.
They were standing up kissing when he went behind her, grabbed her hair, and yanked her down to her knees. Multiple times. I’m terrified.
“This experience of coming to court to testify and give evidence, and to face Mr. Ghomeshi has been extraordinarily hard in light of what happened to me”, said the statement.
The woman also had to explain a Global National media interview in November 2014, and other radio and TV appearances, where the complainant said she and Ghomeshi were not intimate when the first alleged hair-pulling incident occurred. Ghomeshi was born in England to Iranian parents and moved to the Toronto area as a child.
The first witness in the sexual assault trial of former Canadian radio host Jian Ghomeshi said on Monday he pulled her hair and punched her in the head, then called a taxi for her as she cried, kicking off a celebrity trial that has gripped Canada.
February 1, 2016: Ghomeshi’s judge-only trial gets underway in Toronto.
“This is obvious, but this trial has attracted huge media attention”, said Justice Horkins when the trial began Monday.
The Toronto Star asked John Rosen, a veteran of hundreds of cross-examinations in his 46-year career as a criminal lawyer.
She was then questioned by Ghomeshi’s lawyer Marie Henein about inconsistencies in her testimony, based on the statement she made to Toronto police. His lawyer, Marie Henein, says he will plead not guilty.
Ghomeshi was sacked after the CBC said it had seen graphic evidence that he had injured a woman in what Ghomeshi said on Facebook were consensual sex acts involving bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism.
Ghomeshi listened quietly to the proceedings, at times fiddling with his hands, but showing little emotion.
Presented with these emails and the photo, the woman said she was baiting Ghomeshi, hoping he would call so she could confront him. Ghomeshi, the former host of CBC Radio’s popular culture show has pleaded not guilty to four counts of sexual assault and one count of overcoming resistance by choking.
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May 12, 2015: Crown prosecutor Michael Callaghan says two sexual assault charges are dropped against Ghomeshi because there was no reasonable prospect of conviction. If convicted of the choking charge, he faces a potential sentence of life in prison.
