Fate of Joshua Boyle now in judge’s hands
In absence of physical evidence, judge weighs credibility of husband and wife
While held hostage by Pashtun militants, Joshua Boyle and Caitlan Coleman had their fates knit together for five long and desperate years. Deprivation, death, freedom: What happened to one was almost certain to be visited on the other.
The couple forged a hostage family, having three children while in captivity in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Now, two years after their rescue by Pakistani forces, their fates are again intertwined as a trial judge decides who is telling more of the truth: Coleman or Boyle.
Boyle’s domestic-abuse trial concluded Thursday, leaving the case in the hands of Ontario Court Justice Peter Doody. The judge will deliver his verdict Dec. 19.
If he decides Coleman’s story of emotional and physical abuse is mostly credible, Boyle will be found guilty of related criminal charges. If, however, the judge finds that Boyle’s blanket denials and his story of Coleman’s violent fits raise a reasonable doubt, he’ll be acquitted.
The central players in the court drama, Coleman and Boyle testified that their relationship was deeply troubled and highly volatile. But that’s about all the two agreed upon in describing their relationship.
To hear Coleman tell it, Boyle was a cruel and controlling husband who tricked her into travelling to Afghanistan, confined and abused her in captivity, then beat and sexually assaulted her upon their return to Ottawa. Coleman has told U.S. interviewers that she was more afraid of Boyle than her captors.
According to Boyle, he was an altruistic and caring husband who did his best to manage his wife’s raging mental illness and violent fits while carrying the burden of caring for their children. He maintains he has been falsely accused.
Both Crown and defence counsel said the case should be decided primarily on the testimony of Boyle and Coleman.
There’s little physical evidence in the case — evidence of serious bruising or other injuries — and no independent eyewitness to the alleged crimes.
Doody has expressed a degree of exasperation with that state of affairs.
“How am I supposed to decide what to believe and what not to believe?” he asked rhetorically during this week’s closing arguments.
In answer, Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham urged the judge to consider the testimony of other witnesses, such as Coleman’s mother, who lent credence to her daughter’s description of the relationship, and “irrefutable exhibits,” such as the rules, written by Boyle, by which Coleman was to live in Ottawa.
That list also set out physical punishment — “chastising” — for failing to meet his written demands, she noted.
“It (the list) is akin to a smoking gun in this case,” Cunningham told court Thursday.
Defence lawyer Lawrence Greenspon urged Doody to accept Boyle’s testimony as credible and a full defence to all the charges. He said Coleman’s flawed memory cannot be relied upon by the court.
A critical issue for the judge is how to assess the gaps and admitted “fuzziness” of Coleman’s memory.
Greenspon said Coleman’s testimony offered a portrait of a woman with a constellation of psychiatric issues that began in her early 20s and worsened over time. Those problems, Greenspon said, led to anxiety attacks, or fits, that could give rise to reality lapses, blackouts, and invented or inserted memories that make her testimony unreliable.
Cunningham, however, urged Doody not to assume that abused women should be able to recall every element of a traumatic event. Instead, she said, the judge should examine the reasons for Coleman’s “fuzzy” memories. What’s more, Cunningham argued, the memories about which Coleman was certain offer more than enough evidence to convict Boyle.
Boyle, 36, has pleaded not guilty to 19 charges, including assault, sexual assault with a weapon, forcible confinement, criminal harassment and public mischief.
The trial heard that Coleman and Boyle married in July 2011 after a long, turbulent courtship. Coleman began divorce proceedings eight months into their marriage, but they reconciled, conceived a child, and travelled together to Central Asia.
They entered Afghanistan in October 2012, when Coleman was five months pregnant; they were kidnapped days later by members of the Taliban-linked Haqqani network.
Coleman blamed Boyle for their ordeal because of his insistence they visit Afghanistan; Boyle said they were kidnapped because Coleman’s loud, blasphemous fit in a Kabul guest house attracted unwanted attention.
Coleman told court that Boyle’s physical abuse escalated during the last two years of their captivity. She alleged that he hit, bit, slapped, choked and spanked her, and confined her to a shower stall.
Coleman said the abuse continued in Ottawa, where Boyle imposed rules that required her to take cold showers, exercise, lose weight, sleep in the nude, plan interesting sex, and ensure he ejaculated at least 14 times a week
In his testimony, Boyle said the rules were suggestions formulated as New Year’s resolutions but were never acted on.
Boyle told court that his relationship with Coleman fractured for good in captivity when she agreed to his mock execution in return for chocolate. In late 2013, he announced his intention to seek a divorce, Boyle said, but they nonetheless continued to have sex in captivity — and more children.
He told court that the biting and spanking in their relationship was consensual, and part of the couple’s “BDSM lifestyle.”
In his testimony, Boyle described himself as a once aspiring war correspondent; as a masochist who married a woman he knew would bring him “chaos and pain;” and as a stoic who still sleeps on the floor. aduffy@postmedia.com