GHOMESHI FACES 3 NEW CHARGES
Complaints against former CBC host date back to 2002,
One woman was allegedly pushed onto a park bench, choked and groped by Jian Ghomeshi in 2005.
Another was allegedly sexually assaulted in Ghomeshi’s hotel room after he played a show at Summerfolk, an Owen Sound music festival in August 2002.
A third was allegedly inappropriately touched on several occasions, including during February 2008.
All three had previously shared their allegations of sexual and physical abuse with the Star and went to the police after a criminal investigation was launched into the former radio host.
On Thursday morning, two months after he was fired by the CBC and more than 15 women came forward with allegations of harassment, sexual assault and violence, a grim-faced Ghomeshi appeared with his lawyers in a downtown Toronto courtroom.
Three new charges of sexual assault were added to the five charges he already faced involving three women, including Lucy DeCoutere.
The identities of the other complainants are covered by a publication ban requested by the Crown.
Ghomeshi now faces seven charges of sexual assault and one charge of overcoming resistance by choking. The allegations span from 2002 to 2008.
His lawyer, Marie Henein, said Ghomeshi will plead not guilty to all charges.
The earliest of the three new allegations occurred at a music festival in Owen Sound in 2002 where Ghomeshi was performing, according to a previous interview with the complainant.
The woman told the Star that Ghomeshi insisted she come to his hotel room because there were so many fans “swarming” him he couldn’t leave the room for a planned date. In the room, the woman alleged to the Star that Ghomeshi kissed her, squeezed her neck and then slapped her. She said Ghomeshi also shoved his fingers into her mouth roughly.
Another of the new charges is based on an incident that allegedly took place in 2005. In a previous interview with the Star, the woman al- leged that Ghomeshi pushed her down on a bench and choked, smothered, bit and “groped” her in a Toronto park during a music festival.
The third charge relates an alleged sexual assault in 2008. The woman, who previously spoke to the Star, alleged that Ghomeshi sexually assaulted her by touching her inappropriately on several occasions. The charges listed in court documents give no details, but say the alleged incident that led to the charge happened in early February 2008.
Ahead of his court appearance Thursday, Ghomeshi strode into the College Park courthouse flanked by his lawyers, Henein and Danielle Robitaille, passing by a group protesting violence against women and demanding more resources, including a 24-hour drop-in centre downtown for women and trans people.
Inside the small courtroom, Ghomeshi made no eye contact with reporters filling the rows of benches behind him.
Also in the courtroom was Ghomeshi’s mother, who has been acting as his surety since he was released on $100,000 bail after his arrest in November. At the request of Crown prosecutor Michael Callaghan, Ghomeshi’s bail conditions were amended to prohibit him from contacting or going with 500 metres of the three new complainants.
Ghomeshi remained silent and answered no questions from the time he left the courthouse surrounded by police officers until he entered an SUV.
The CBC is in the midst of an independent investigation led by employment lawyer Janice Rubin into allegations about Ghomeshi within the organization. On Monday, the public broadcaster’s human resources director Todd Spencer and head of radio Chris Boyce were put on indefinite leaves of absence in connection with the Ghomeshi scandal.
Boyce was one of two executives who viewed material that allegedly shows Ghomeshi causing harm to a woman. Ghomeshi was fired three days later. Boyce also told CBC’s the fifth estate that an internal investigation last summer into allegations about inappropriate behaviour by Ghomeshi turned up nothing. Seventeen Q staffers during that time told the fifth estate that they were never contacted by CBC bosses.
Ghomeshi will make his next court appearance on Feb. 4. With files from Jacques Gallant