Hostage rescued from Afghanistan appears in court
Sexual assault, confinement charges
OTTAWA • Wearing an orange jumpsuit, former Afghanistan captive Joshua Boyle made a brief appearance Wednesday morning at an Ottawa court to face charges of sexual assault, forcible confinement and lying to police.
Boyle, 34, identified himself on closed circuit video from an Ottawa jail and stood silently as the case was adjourned until Jan. 8.
Boyle and his family have been catapulted back into the spotlight just months after their release from captivity, after he was arrested for a series of alleged crimes dating back to Oct. 14.
That’s just two days after Boyle had called his parents in Canada to tell them he had been freed.
Boyle and his American wife were abducted in 2012 by a Taliban-linked group while on what he has called a backpacking trip. Their three children were born and raised in captivity until their rescue by Pakistani commandos.
Boyle is also charged with misleading police on Dec. 30 after reporting that someone was suicidal and missing.
Police are alleging Boyle concocted the story to “divert suspicion from himself.”
In all, Boyle faces 15 criminal charges, ranging from assault, to sexual assault, to forcible confinement and administering a noxious drug (trazodone, an antidepressant with anti-anxiety and sleep-inducing effects).
There is a publication ban on the name of the victim. None of the charges has been proven in court.
Defence lawyer Ninetta Caparelli represented Boyle but offered no comment beyond what her law firm said Tuesday.
The son of an Ottawa tax court judge, Boyle had previously been in the public spotlight because of his brief marriage to Omar Khadr’s older sister.
When Boyle and his family were freed, U.S. intelligence officials publicly said they had long suspected Boyle had entered Afghanistan with the desire to hook up with “Taliban-affiliated militants.”
Despite the length of their captivity, no ransom was ever demanded by their kidnappers.
When asked by ABC News following his rescue why he was in Afghanistan, Boyle refused to answer.
Boyle did say in a public statement at the time that the Haqqani network in Afghanistan had killed an infant daughter and raped his wife during their captivity.
“The stupidity and evil of the Haqqani network’s kidnapping of a pilgrim and his heavily pregnant wife engaged in helping ordinary villagers in Taliban-controlled regions of Afghanistan was eclipsed only by the stupidity and evil of authorizing the murder of my infant daughter,” he said.
The Taliban denied Boyle’s accusations.
In a statement to ABC on Tuesday, his wife, Caitlan Coleman Boyle, said, “I can’t speak about the specific charges, but I can say that ultimately it is the strain and trauma he was forced to endure for so many years and the effects that that had on his mental state that is most culpable for this.
“Obviously, he is responsible for his own actions,” she wrote in the statement, “but it is with compassion and forgiveness that I say I hope help and healing can be found for him. As to the rest of us, myself and the children, we are healthy and holding up as well as we can.”
Last month, in the wake of their release, the Boyle family met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The prime minister generally meets with any returning hostages with connections to Canada, and discussion of the hostage-taking was the main purpose of the meeting, said a government official.
Photos posted by the family on social media show Trudeau holding their youngest child.
The Twitter account is called Boyles Vs World.