Translation issues delay sex assault retrial

The high-profile retrial of a Halifax taxi driver accused of sexually assaulting a female passenger has been adjourned after hearing testimony from the complainant and from the police officer who found her unconscious and almost naked in a cab.

Bassam Al-Rawi’s trial was scheduled to continue Friday in Halifax provincial court, but there were concerns raised about the translation of testimony from a forensic biologist into Arabic.

Judge Ann Marie Simmons said it is imperative that Al-Rawi understands all of the testimony, and so the trial was adjourned until April 15 to make accommodations and to hear more testimony from Crown witnesses.

“Thank you,” Al-Rawi - wearing a blue button-up sweater, white collared shirt and blue tie - said to the judge just before the adjournment.

Al-Rawi, who is in his early 40s, faces a charge of sexual assault, after an acquittal was overturned last January by the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal.

The appeal court concluded the judge that presided over Al-Rawi’s first trial in March 2017 erred in law by finding there was no evidence of lack of consent.

The retrial has heard from several Crown witnesses over four days.

A police constable has testified she found the woman, now in her late 20s, passed out and mostly naked in the back of a taxi, the driver between her legs.

The complainant, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, told the court she was drunk on the evening of May 22, 2015, and does not remember leaving a downtown bar.

She remembers standing at the bar at Boomers Lounge, and her next memory was being in a hospital with two nurses and a police officer.

The woman testified she would not have consented to sex with the cab driver.

“I simply would not consent to any manner of sexual contact with a stranger - someone much older than me who is on the job,” the woman told the retrial Wednesday.

Defence lawyer Ian Hutchison appeared to suggest during his cross-examination of the complainant Thursday that she kissed the driver during the ride from downtown, and removed her own clothes inside the cab.

“If I was to suggest to you that it was in fact you who pushed your pants down, would you be in a position to disagree?” Hutchison asked.

The woman, now in her late 20s, replied: “No.”

The retrial has been scheduled for another four days. It’s not known yet if the defence will call evidence.

In his decision at the first trial, Judge Gregory Lenehan said: “clearly, a drunk can consent,” a remark that sparked a national debate over intoxication and the capacity to consent to sex.