A photo of actress Lucy DeCoutere cuddling up to Jian Ghomeshi in a Toronto park the day after he allegedly attacked her at his home was presented in court during his sexual assault trial on Thursday.
The photo, along with two others taken the day after he allegedly assaulted her, was shown during defence lawyer Marie Henein’s cross-examination of DeCoutere on Thursday afternoon.
The photos were presented as the high-profile lawyer questioned the witness’ behaviour toward Ghomeshi following the alleged indent in July 2003.
On Thursday morning, DeCoutere, the only complainant in the case who can be publicly identified, told the court that during a tour of Jian Ghomeshi’s “perfect” home on the Danforth one night that summer, the ex radio host suddenly turned violent when he began choking her and slapping her in the face.
She said the incident occurred just weeks after the two had met at a television conference in Banff.
She said following the conference, she returned to her home in Halifax and continued to communicate with Ghomeshi via email.
She later agreed to meet him in Toronto one weekend in July.
DeCoutere testified that while the two were out for dinner at a restaurant on the Danforth, Ghomeshi boasted about his career and found it odd that she didn’t know more about him.
At one point, she said, he made a comment about how he wanted to go back to his house to put music on and hold her.
“It felt cheesy and put on,” she told the court.
She said she did end up going to Ghomeshi’s house after the dinner and he gave her a tour of his home.
She said the tour ended with a look at a meticulously organized closet in his bedroom and while the two were standing there, she said he “suddenly” starting kissing her.
"It just started. There was no buildup,” she said.
DeCoutere told the court that he proceeded to push her up against a wall, choke her, and slap her three times across the face.
"All I could register was not being able to breathe and shock," she said.
The slaps, as she described them, were hard enough to get her attention but “not hard enough to leave a mark.”
"It is pretty shocking when somebody hits your face. I’ve never really had that happen before,” she added.
Following the alleged assault, DeCoutere said she hung out at his house for about an hour longer while he played guitar and listened to music.
"I didn’t want to seem frosty and I didn’t want to seem mad,” she said, adding that she thought his behaviour might be a “one off.”
She agreed to see him again that weekend.
After attending a barbecue and some industry parties together in the days that followed, DeCoutere said the two parted ways.
When she got back to Halifax, communication tapered off, she said.
She said the two saw each other sporadically over the years, including at what she described as an uncomfortable meeting at the Gemini Awards and an awkward in-character interview on Ghomeshi’s show ‘Q’ with her ‘Trailer Park Boys’ co-star.
DeCoutere also mentioned an “intensely ironic” impromptu duet at the Banff television conference the next year, when she said Ghomeshi jumped on stage at a karaoke night and starting singing “Hit Me Baby One More Time,” with DeCoutere.
During cross-examination Thursday, Henein questioned the witness about information she had “omitted” from her statements to media and to police, including the detail that she had kissed Ghomeshi goodbye after he allegedly assaulted her that night. Henein said DeCoutere had also neglected to tell anybody she had taken photos with him the next day in Riverdale Park.
The cross-examination ended Thursday with Henein asking DeCoutere why she did not disclose to police or to the Crown that she had communicated with Ghomeshi following the alleged assault.
On Tuesday night, after the defence confronted the first witness with “flirtatious” emails she had sent to Ghomeshi following his alleged assault on her, Henein said DeCoutere’s lawyer called the Crown to discuss “post-assault contact.”
Henein previously said DeCoutere told a friend that Ghomeshi had some emails that he was going to “use against” her.
“The very first time this call gets made (to the Crown) is when you know that the defence might have some of those emails you were worried about?”
“Because of my ignorance of the system, I also thought that I would be interviewed by the Crown in a way that I could elaborate upon my statement,” DeCoutere responded.
"When it became clear to me that I would be walking into cross-examination and have the Crown potentially be surprised by contact which I had with Mr. Ghomeshi over time, apart from the time he assaulted me, I was, yeah, very concerned.”
Henein pressed the witness on telling the truth and ended the day on a cliffhanger.
"Do you want to take a moment and tell the truth of the real conversation that was going on? Not the one that you have been reporting to the media, not the one in the press releases. Do you want to tell his honour the real conversation that was going on?”
Court will resume at 10 a.m. on Friday.
Ghomeshi has pleaded not guilty to four counts of sexual assault and one count of overcoming resistance, choking in connection with this case.
