Coun. Michael Thompson has been discovered not responsible of sexually assaulting two ladies in Ontario cottage nation three years in the past.
Ontario Court docket Justice Philop Brissette delivered his long-awaited resolution inside a courtroom in Midland, Ont., Tuesday, saying Crown attorneys failed to fulfill the burden of guilt past an affordable doubt.
Thompson, who represents Scarborough Centre, was charged two counts of sexual assault in 2022, following accusations from two girl after a Muskoka cottage weekend with him.
The 65-year-old man has maintained his innocence and denied a number of of the allegations whereas testifying in his personal defence.
The trial has been drawn out over a number of months over scheduling points confronted by the decide, the Crown, and the defence. After shifting to Barrie within the spring, it resumed on June 24 in Bradford the place closing submissions had been heard.
Michael Thompson walks right into a Midland, Ont., courtroom Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025.
Matthew Bingley/World Information
Throughout that listening to, Leora Shemesh, Thompson’s lawyer, accused all three Crown witnesses as missing in credibility. She claimed they crafted a fraudulent story and their makes an attempt to besmirch her shopper’s status had been nothing greater than a witch hunt.
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These witness, three ladies whose identities are protected beneath a typical publication ban, had been company on the cottage in 2022.
Two of the ladies had been complainants within the trial, one alleging Thompson fondled her breasts and buttocks beneath her bathing go well with whereas making use of sunscreen. One other girl informed the courtroom Thompson pressured oral intercourse on her and ejaculated on her.
Thompson denied each accounts and mentioned he solely utilized sunscreen to one of many complainants when he was requested to, whereas denying the allegation of improper touching. He additionally mentioned he engaged in a consensual sexual act with the opposite girl, providing a counter-narrative that she had woken him up and carried out oral intercourse on him.
Whereas there have been totally different narratives supplied, Crown Lawyer Marieke Newhouse failed to fulfill the bar of guilt past an affordable doubt, Shemesh mentioned.
Throughout her closing arguments, Newhouse claimed it was Thompson who was presenting a false narrative, arguing he had been plying the ladies with alcohol and marijuana all through the weekend, and accusing Thompson of mendacity when he testified that not one of the company had been intoxicated.
The Crown additionally accused Thompson of repeatedly providing unsolicited tales of being charitable, to not clear his identify, however as a performative try to look as a benevolent civic chief for an viewers outdoors the courtroom.
Newhouse additionally mentioned Thompson’s assertion that the intercourse acts had been consensual had been fictitious and that he pressured himself on one of many complainants when she had repeatedly mentioned “no.”
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