TRURO - Two Truro men charged with sexually assaulting a woman last September have been found not guilty of all sex-related charges.
After approximately 14 hours of deliberation spread over two days, Robert Henry Desmond, 49 and Michael Shane Paris, 48, were both acquitted on charges of sexual assault, sexual assault with a weapon and sexual assault causing bodily harm.
Desmond, who had pled guilty to common assault, was also found guilty on charges of confinement and uttering a threat to cause death or bodily harm.
A jubilant Paris was acquitted on all charges.
"It's been exhausting since Day 1," he said, following the jury decision. "Obviously I tried to show my game face the whole time but, yeah, it is stressful at times. But I will say that all this could have been avoided if the truth had of come out from the beginning ...."
Co-Crown Attorney Laura Quigley described the case as being "complex" and "graphically violent" and, while thanking the jurors for the time they spent on it, she said, the facts of the findings will be reviewed with an aim of appealing the decision on "the legal issues."
"And finally," Quigley said, "I think the complainant that did come forward was very brave."
The men were charged following an incident that occurred in the early hours of last Sept. 19 when a woman ran naked and screaming from Desmond's Walker Street apartment to a neighbouring residence.
In a call to police, the woman said she had just been choked by Desmond, a charge he ultimately pled guilty to.
Dave Mahoney, defence lawyer for Desmond, hinged his case on the woman's credibility in light of contradicting evidence she originally gave to police and medical officials about some incidents that were ultimately determined to have taken place during consensual sex with the accused.
Desmond, who has been in custody for almost nine months, is to be sentenced Monday on the three charges.
