by SIMON HOUPT, The Globe and Mail
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Judge: “A reasonable doubt exists in this case.”
Disgraced former CBC broadcaster Jian Ghomeshi was found not guilty on Thursday morning in his first of two trials for sexual assault.
The verdict, delivered from the bench by Justice William B. Horkins of the Ontario Court of Justice, cleared Mr. Ghomeshi of four counts of sexual assault and one count of overcoming resistance by choking, charges that stemmed from alleged incidents dating from late 2002 to the summer of 2003.
The verdict brings to a close one chapter in an ongoing saga for Mr. Ghomeshi that began when the CBC fired him in late October, 2014, and his private life suddenly spilled into public view. Days after his dismissal, the CBC hired an employment law firm, which issued a report last April that found Mr. Ghomeshi “consistently breached the behavioural standard” of the broadcaster by yelling at, belittling and humiliating others.
Mr. Ghomehi’s next trial, on a single count of sexual assault dating from an alleged incident of workplace harassment in 2008, is scheduled for June 6.
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