Jian Ghomeshi Won’t Testify, Court to Hear Closing Arguments Thursday

Jian Ghomeshi's sexual assault trial will wrap up Thursday after both the Crown and defence make their closing arguments.

Ghomeshi will not testify. He faces four counts of sexual assault and one count of choking.

The court resumed briefly Wednesday to allow Crown counsel Michael Callaghan to enter into evidence a statement given to Halifax police by Lucy DeCoutere's friend Sarah Dunsworth.

The statement, made under oath November 24, 2014, a month after allegations about the former CBC host were first published in the Toronto Star, speak to conversations DeCoutere and Dunsworth had about Ghomeshi after he allegedly choked and slapped DeCoutere while they were on a date in July 2003.

Dunsworth, who met DeCoutere in 2000 while co-starring on Trailer Park Boys, told police she thought DeCoutere first told her about the incident in 2004, "like a few days afterwards." But she seemed unsure about exact year.

According to Dunsworth's statement, DeCoutere called her from Toronto and opened the conversation "by laughing and going 'Is this normal?'.. And she described an incident in which she had gone to his house, and that he had ended up putting his hands on her neck and choking her."

Dunsworth said she answered, "No… it's really not normal" and determined that there had been no consent—"it wasn't part of any kind of like, you know, sex play."

DeCoutere reportedly told Dunsworth she hadn't slept with Ghomeshi and that the attack "came from out of nowhere."

Dunsworth said she and DeCoutere were later interviewed by Ghomeshi (she thinks in 2006) on the radio about Trailer Park Boys. She said he was rude and "didn't want us to be there."

Dunsworth confirmed that, prior to making the statement, she had an independent recollection of what DeCoutere told her about the allegations. She said when she heard the news reports about Ghomeshi, "I was pretty sure that they were true because I had had this previous knowledge about him."

She also said she recalls a sense that DeCoutere, at the time the alleged assault occurred, wasn't "that into him."

In a November 2014 Facebook messages submitted to the court, DeCoutere tells Dunsworth "Guess what? The Toronto cops want your number," to which Dunsworth replies, "Just to corroborate?… Ya no prob."

Callaghan said Tuesday that he was submitting Dunsworth's testimony to challenge the defence's claims that DeCoutere fabricated allegations against Ghomeshi to become more famous.

"With those items being filed, that's the Crown closing its case," he added Wednesday.

Ghomeshi's lawyer Marie Henein has indicated she won't be presenting any evidence or calling any witnesses for the defence.

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