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Frank Stronach, pictured here in February, has pleaded not guilty to 12 charges stemming from alleged incidents that took place decades ago. Laura Proctor/The Canadian Press
An Ontario judge is expected to deliver her ruling today in the sexual assault trial of billionaire businessman Frank Stronach.
Stronach, who is 93, pleaded not guilty to 12 charges stemming from alleged incidents that took place decades ago involving seven complainants.
The trial started in February, and by the time arguments wrapped up in April, prosecutors had withdrawn one charge and agreed Stronach should be found not guilty on four more.
The judge overseeing the case, Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy, then said she couldn’t convict the businessman based on the evidence of one of the remaining complainants, whose account she found unreliable.
That leaves Stronach with five charges related to three complainants.
One of the three women was a former employee at Rooney’s, the popular restaurant and nightlife complex Stronach owned, while the other two said they first encountered him at the venue.
None of the complainants can be identified under a standard publication ban.
Analysis: Erosion of case against Frank Stronach spotlights challenges of prosecuting historical sexual assaults
The former employee said she agreed to meet Stronach for dinner one evening in the early 1980s after reaching out to him for information on her termination from Rooney’s.
Over dinner at a restaurant, Stronach felt like a “fatherly mentor,” but the woman said she felt uncomfortable when he asked her to come see his nearby condo afterward.
She felt her heart pounding almost immediately after going into the unit, she testified. When she insisted on leaving, Stronach helped her put on her coat, groping her in the process, she said. The woman said he ran his hands up and down her body, touching her breasts and hips.
The woman left, and days or weeks later she received a call offering her a job interview at Magna International, the company Stronach founded in the 1950s, she said. She ended up working at the company for several years but didn’t work directly with Stronach, she said.
Another complainant said she was a regular at Rooney’s and had seen Stronach there frequently. One night in 1977, they had a lobster dinner at the restaurant then Stronach invited her to see his apartment, she said.
Once inside the apartment, Stronach disappeared for a few minutes, then the woman felt a push that put her over the arm of an armchair, she said. Stronach lifted up her skirt and she could feel his erect penis against her underwear like he was trying to penetrate them, she said.
The woman said she eventually freed herself by standing up, then took her coat and purse and left. She didn’t recall anyone speaking.
The final complainant said she met Stronach at Rooney’s in 1982 or 1983 and she was flattered when he asked her out to dinner.
After dessert, he asked her to come to his apartment, which was in a building attached to the hotel where they’d eaten, she said. After they walked in, Stronach took her straight to the living room couch and they talked a bit, she said.
When he tried to kiss her, the woman said she “rebuffed” him and clarified that she wasn’t there for that. Stronach got up, took her by the hand and led her to a small room with a cot, she said.
The woman said she tried to think of ways to manage the situation and figured she could go home if she gave him a few “smooches.”
Stronach dragged her on top of him on the cot and kissed her again, and she “half-heartedly” participated, she said. She tried to prevent him from pushing her knee-length dress up, but Stronach had her pinned, she said.
He eventually ripped her pantyhose and penetrated her, she said, adding she felt paralyzed and “let him do what he wanted to do.”
Stronach’s defence team argued his accusers lied and changed parts of their narratives over time, including on the stand, and urged the judge to find them neither credible nor reliable as witnesses.
The former employee introduced new “significant” details to her account during trial, including that Stronach had helped her with her coat, defence lawyer Leora Shemesh argued in her final submissions. It’s also hard to understand why the woman would take a job at Stronach’s company if she had felt trapped and afraid in his apartment, the lawyer argued.
The complainant who alleged Stronach tried to penetrate her on a chair was combative during cross-examination and lied that she had not seen any other complainants’ accounts, Shemesh argued. Her entire story is “unbelievable,” and some details didn’t emerge until a meeting with prosecutors weeks before trial, the defence lawyer said.
The final complainant was not honest about why she accompanied Stronach to his condo after dinner or why she agreed to go to the bedroom with him, Shemesh argued, noting the woman had not disclosed that she and Stronach held hands as they left…
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