CANADA
Toronto Star
By ALY THOMSON
The Canadian Press
Tues., Nov. 22, 2016
KENTVILLE, N.S.—Brent Hawkes’ lawyers conceded Tuesday that teenagers drank alcohol at the Toronto pastor’s Nova Scotia trailer during the mid 1970s, much to the prosecutor’s surprise.
Crown lawyer Bob Morrison had intended to call rebuttal witnesses to testify that other students, and not only the three witnesses who testified last week at Hawkes’ gross indecency trial, drank alcohol at his Greenwood, N.S., home.
But the defence said they didn’t disagree with the Crown on that point, so there was no need to hear from the witnesses.
“It was a bit of a surprise,” Morrison said outside the Kentville, N.S., courtroom on Tuesday, the fifth day of the trial. “That’s not what I had recollected (Hawkes’) evidence was . . . but the defence did concede that yes, in fact, he was aware that was taking place.”
Morrison and defence lawyer Clayton Ruby will make closing arguments Wednesday in a case that has challenged the memory of witnesses as they recounted events that happened more than 40 years ago.
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