A British Columbia Supreme Court judge gave the jury instructions to start deliberating Monday in the sexual assault trial of a former Vancouver Canuck.
Justice Catherine Wedge told jurors they must deliver a unanimous verdict after an honest, impartial and dispassionate review of the evidence, and they may only find Jake Virtanen guilty if the Crown has proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
“What you must decide is whether the Crown’s evidence, considered in its totality, gives rise to only one inference of fact on the issue of consent, which is that the complainant did not consent to the sexual activity,” Wedge said. The Crown and defence counsel finished their closing arguments Monday by focusing on the reliability of two witnesses and their conflicting testimony.
The woman was “crystal clear” at the start of her testimony that she didn’t consent to any sexual activity with Virtanen, Martland said, but during cross-examination she accepted an earlier statement she had given to police indicating she was initially OK with kissing him and later objected to continuing or going further.
Ip asked the jury to dispense with any potential preconceived notions about how someone should or shouldn’t act during or after a sexual assault. Ip told the jury they should view the civil lawsuit as evidence of the woman’s determination in wanting the alleged assault to come to light.
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