An accused rapist in Canada has been acquitted in two cases after a judge found one alleged victim to be “combative” on the stand and the other to be unreliable because her timing was off by one hour.
Paul Batchelor, 34, had been facing two counts of sexual assault and two of forcible confinement.
In handing down his decision, Justice Robert Beaudoin sided with the defence’s explanation that the women had requested rough sex. “Consent can be given without a word being spoken,” Beaudoin told the court, as reported by the Ottawa Citizen.
The encounters happened in May and June of 2015. Both women’s names are protected by a publication ban.
Batchelor is still facing three other, separate accusations of rape, to be tried in court next year.
In Friday’s acquittal, Beaudoin also told the court he didn’t believe one of the women’s claims she was too intimidated to say “no” because she had been “combative” while on the stand.
Julie Lalonde, an Ottawa educator and women’s rights advocate, took issue with the judge’s comments.
“The idea that because you get agitated while you’re being cross-examined in a courtroom, that you must be an assertive person 24/7, is a really damaging myth to put out into the world,” said Lalonde.
A second alleged victim told the court that she met Batchelor for a drink and later went with him to his apartment, where he anally raped her. She testified that she screamed and pleaded for Batchelor to stop.
The judge questioned why, if the woman had screamed, none of Batchelor’s neighbours intervened. Beaudoin referred to the accused’s description that his apartment was in an old building with thin walls.
“Curiously, no one seems to have heard her cries,” Beaudoin told the court. “It is difficult to accept that he would have continued assaulting [the woman] with his knowledge that her very loud screams could be heard.”
In the other case, the complainant said she met Batchelor in a study room at her university then went with him to his apartment. She said he forced oral sex on her, but that she was able to kick him and escape before it escalated further.
The judge doubted her account because her timing of the events differed from Batchelor’s by about an hour. Meanwhile, she said the incident lasted no more than 10 minutes, while Batchelor countered that it had lasted 40 minutes.
Lalonde said the judge’s comments appeared to be poorly informed.
“I’m a big supporter of a trauma-informed legal system, which would mean [recognizing] that trauma deeply impacts memory,” she said, explaining that the neurobiology of trauma inhibits the ability to see a timeline from a linear perspective.
“The fact that [Batchelor] had a very linear, precise schedule of what happened and she didn’t, and that was used to discredit her, should actually be used to add credibility to her claims,” Lalonde said.
Batchelor is scheduled to stand trial next year on other sexual assault charges in Ontario superior court.
