Close X
Sunday, November 24, 2024
ADVT 
International

Judge Wrong To Use Woman's Email To Police In Sex-Assault Conviction

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 03 Feb, 2017 01:16 PM
  • Judge Wrong To Use Woman's Email To Police In Sex-Assault Conviction
TORONTO — A judge's finding that an email a woman sent to police helped prove she had been sexually assaulted is enough to quash a conviction against her alleged attacker, Ontario's top court ruled Friday.
 
In ordering a new hearing for Bo Zou, the Court of Appeal found the judge was wrong to view the email sent a day after the incident as confirmation of her account at trial.
 
The case arose when the then-18-year-old woman, who can only be identified as A.Y., went to Zou's condominium in Toronto for a photo shoot in July 2012.
 
She alleged that Zou, then 33, who held himself out as a fashion photographer under the name Jay Dreamcollector, attacked her. Despite her protestations, she testified, he took off her clothes and raped her. For his part, Zou testified it was A.Y. who made advances on him, and that she was angry because he rebuffed them.
 
At trial, A.Y. gave an account of what happened in Zou's studio. She also testified that, on the morning after the alleged assault, she angrily fired off an anonymous email to police that described in detail what allegedly had happened. The email version of events, the prosecution noted, was consistent with her oral testimony.
 
In July 2015, Superior Court Justice Robert Goldstein convicted Zou of sexually assaulting the woman and sentenced him to two years less a day. Among other things, Goldstein said Zou's account made no sense. He also said he found A.Y. to be credible.
 
"Most importantly, I find A.Y.'s email, sent contemporaneously with the events, to be corroboration of her evidence," Goldstein said.
 
Zou appealed, arguing the email could not legally have been used to support A.Y.'s testimony about the assault.
 
For its part, the prosecution maintained the judge only used the email as circumstantial evidence to support A.Y.'s testimony about her state of mind after the alleged attack.
 
However, defence lawyer Marie Henein countered that it might have been proper to use the note to show the woman was angry at Zou, but that using its contents to confirm her account of what happened flawed the conviction.
 
The Appeal Court agreed with Zou, saying the email was not from an independent source that could confirm the truth of A.Y.'s story.
 
"The trial judge's use of the word 'corroboration' in the context of a prior consistent statement by a witness is troubling," the Appeal Court said.
 
"That word, as commonly understood, refers to evidence from a source other than the witness whose evidence is challenged which is capable of confirming the veracity of the evidence of the challenged witness."
 
The Appeal Court pointed out that Goldstein referred to the email six times in his reasons for conviction.

MORE International ARTICLES

White House Uses Quebec Killings To Defend Own Policies On Muslim-Country Travel

In the face of protests, lawsuits, internal grumbling, an international backlash and a partial climb-down, the Trump administration invoked Quebec City's mosque attack to defend its travel ban on seven majority-Muslim countries.

White House Uses Quebec Killings To Defend Own Policies On Muslim-Country Travel

Murdered Infosys Staffer's Father Alleges Harassment By Senior

Murdered Infosys Staffer's Father Alleges Harassment By Senior
A former army officer, Raju O. told media persons that she had complained to her family about the alleged pestering by a superior and she was very disturbed about it, compelling her to seek a transfer to Bengaluru.

Murdered Infosys Staffer's Father Alleges Harassment By Senior

Two Indians Plead Guilty To Smuggling Foreigners Into US

Two Indians Plead Guilty To Smuggling Foreigners Into US
Two Indian men here pleaded guilty before a district court to charges of illegally smuggling foreign nationals to the US, the media reported.

Two Indians Plead Guilty To Smuggling Foreigners Into US

India Convey Concern Over H1B Visa To US

India Convey Concern Over H1B Visa To US
India on Tuesday said it has conveyed its concern to the US over a bill being introduced in the Congress to change rules on H1B visas which is likely to impact the Indian IT industry and Indian techies working in the US.

India Convey Concern Over H1B Visa To US

US Effect? Pakistan Puts Lashkar Chief Hafiz Saeed Under House Arrest?

US Effect? Pakistan Puts Lashkar Chief Hafiz Saeed Under House Arrest?
Saeed's outlawed group has been involved in the anti-India insurgency in Kashmir and is also accused of several high-profile terror attacks across India.

US Effect? Pakistan Puts Lashkar Chief Hafiz Saeed Under House Arrest?

Indian-Origin Lawmaker Urges British PM To Renounce 'Racist' Trump

Indian-Origin Lawmaker Urges British PM To Renounce 'Racist' Trump
A senior Indian-origin British MP today wrote to Prime Minister Theresa May to renounce US President Donald Trump's controversial travel ban on nationals of seven Muslim countries.

Indian-Origin Lawmaker Urges British PM To Renounce 'Racist' Trump