Whitehorse jury finds man guilty of sexual assaults against 3 women
CBC
A Whitehorse jury has found a man guilty of four counts of sexual assault against three women after a week-long trial.
Rudra Amin, 28, showed little reaction as a designated juror read out the verdicts in Yukon Supreme Court Tuesday afternoon.
He was also found not guilty of three sexual assault charges involving the same women.
Police arrested and charged Amin with the seven counts after the women came forward in June 2020, alleging he'd separately kissed, groped and in one situation, had non-consensual intercourse with them in 2017 and 2018.
The women were all friends or former romantic partners of Amin's whom he stayed in touch with after their relationships ended.
During the trial, presided over by Chief Justice Suzanne Duncan, the women testified that Amin made unwelcome romantic advances toward them when they were alone and that he persisted as they told him, "No," or to stop.
On the witness stand, one of the women, Amin's former co-worker, accused him of kissing and touching her without her consent in her car after they'd made a stop on Chadburn Lake Road in Whitehorse as she was driving him home from a work gathering. She also testified that on a separate occasion, Amin again kissed and groped her in bed after she allowed him to sleep over following a party she'd hosted.
Another woman testified that she'd had a casual romantic relationship with Amin and several months after it ended, had what she believed was a "friendly" dinner with him. She testified that he drove her home afterwards and came in to have tea, but pinned her against a wall while kissing and groping her as she was walking him to the door.
The third woman, Amin's ex-girlfriend, testified that they'd stayed in contact after breaking up, and that he'd insisted on coming into her home one night to watch a movie. While they'd started off sitting on opposite ends of her couch, she said he gradually "inched" over and began kissing and groping her before having non-consensual intercourse with her as she told him, "No," and "I don't want this."
Two of the women also alleged Amin kissed and touched them without their consent at their workplaces — in one case, in the shoe room of a retail store, and in the other, at a restaurant — while the ex-girlfriend alleged he'd kissed and touched her at her home on another occasion as well. The jury found him not guilty on the three counts related to those allegations.
Amin, who took the witness stand in his own defence, repeatedly denied that he'd sexually assaulted any of the women, testifying that some of the incidents outright didn't happen while the others were consensual.
He admitted, however, that he was with his ex-girlfriend while casually dating the other woman, and had also asked to kiss and cuddle his coworker during the relationship.
In cross-examinations, defence lawyer Jennifer Budgell repeatedly suggested none of the sexual assaults ever happened, and that the women made up the allegations to get Amin into trouble because they were angry to learn he was a cheater.
The women all denied that.
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