Crown lawyer Michael Callaghan says the witness, who’s not been named, would corroborate allegations by one of the three women who have accused the disgraced broadcaster of sexual assault.
Advertisement
The woman acknowledge that she had been misleading, but claimed she didn’t initially think the later sexual encounter was relevant. “And then his hands were around my neck and he was squeezing”, the woman said in a trembling voice.
However, Heinen, said that there more than occasional run-ins.
When pressed by Heinen, she said that she invited Ghomeshi out of “curiosity”.
The woman reported the alleged sexual assault to police in December 2014, but she said she didn’t mention to investigators a sexual encounter she had with Ghomeshi in the days after the choking incident because it was consensual and she was embarrassed.
In this particular message, the woman had texted DeCoutere to tell her she’d just met Callaghan and Langdon.
Robitaille pointed out apparent inconsistencies between a statement the witness gave to police and what DeCoutere said in court last week, including discrepancies in timing. “It wasn’t, ‘I’m gonna talk to the press before I talk to police, ‘” she told Ms. Henein during cross-examination on Thursday. In others, she gives the woman a “detailed and lengthy breakdown” of her own meetings with the Crown.
In some of the messages, DeCoutere tells the woman to contact the actress’s lawyer and her publisher.
Earlier on Monday, the woman testified that Ghomeshi had surprised her when he put his hands around her neck while they were “making out”.
“There was nothing about this that I wanted to be a part of”.
The new statement was not disclosed to the defence until Sunday, Henein said, and more new information was added early Monday morning.
The judge in the sexual assault trial of Jian Ghomeshi is holding a closed-door hearing to deal with new evidence that came to light over the weekend.
She said there were pages of notes where the complainant “disclosed a myriad of things that she had failed to disclose previously”.
The trial enters its fifth day Monday, with a third and final alleged victim set to take the stand against Ghomeshi, who was born in London, England but raised in Thornhill, Ont.
The Crown told Henein that there was no attempt to mislead anyone with the late disclosure.
It was while they were kissing that the alleged assault took place, court heard.
The complainant said she’d tried not to listen to coverage of the case, but had the radio on and didn’t make it to the room to turn it off in time.
Advertisement
Before DeCoutere’s testimony, the trial heard from the first complainant in the case who alleged Ghomeshi suddenly yanked on her hair while they were kissing in his vehicle, and on another night, pulled her hair and punched her in the head while they were kissing in his living room.
