Looking relieved, Jean-Guy Stratford-Robert, 32, left the Saint-Hyacinthe courthouse, refusing to comment on the verdict.
He was accused of having taken advantage of the complainant’s high degree of alcohol intoxication to have sexual relations with her during a drunken party in Saint-Liboire (Montérégie), in 2018.
But the woman’s drunkenness, then aged 20, was not sufficient to remove her capacity to consent to the act, ruled Judge Marc-André Gauthier of the Court of Quebec.
“A high state of intoxication can give rise to an incapacity to consent,” the judge said. […] But the intoxication must be extremely high. The fact of regretting one’s decision later does not invalidate consent either.”
The Saint-Hyacinthe courthouse. (Archives of the Voice of the East)
According to the judge, the complainant had been “obviously consenting”; a video from outside a banking institution, where the relationship took place, shows her taking the initiative in the rapprochements, in particular by removing the accused’s pants, then her own.
She was, however, saddened when Mr Stratford-Robert later refused to give her his telephone number. The rocky surface on which they made love had also caused her intimate injury.
“There is no proof beyond a reasonable doubt of the complainant’s inability to consent,” said Judge Gauthier.
Cross-examination
A decision similar to that taken by judge Lise Gaboury at the end of the accused’s first trial, in 2020.
The Crown appealed the decision, arguing that the judge had erred in applying the rules of cross-examination; the Court of Appeal then ordered a second trial, which was held this spring.
Me Marie-Claude Morin, from the public prosecutor, indicated upon leaving the courtroom that this second acquittal verdict was “well constructed” and that “the analysis was rigorous”.
In defense, Me Pierre Joyal made a similar statement while reserving his comments for the next 30 days, the period during which another appeal could be filed by the Crown.
“Let her let him go!” he nevertheless let it drop.
