CANADA
Daily Xtra
Matthew DiMera
“This is a weird case, and the evidence is weird,” defence lawyer Clayton Ruby said today in his closing arguments in the Brent Hawkes sexual assault trial.
Hawkes, a longtime leader of Toronto’s gay community and recipient of the Order of Canada, is facing one charge of indecent assault and one charge of gross indecency for allegedly having oral sex with a 16-year-old more than 40 years ago in Kings County, NS, when he was a high school teacher.
“I have not got the evidence to show that the three witnesses are lying,” Ruby told provincial court Judge Alan Tufts. “But we do have an abundance of evidence that their testimony is unreliable.”
The Crown’s case against Hawkes is based almost entirely on eyewitness testimonies from three witnesses whose identities are protected under a publication ban.
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