Court of Appeal hears taxi driver sex assault case

"A drunk can consent," ruled judge Greg Lenehan in lower court decision dismissing charges against Bassam Al-Rawi.

November 23, 2017 By Jennifer Henderson

“A reluctant acquittal.” That’s how defence lawyer Luke Craggs characterized a decision by Nova Scotia judge Greg Lenehan last March, when Lenehan found taxi driver Bassam Al-Rawi not guilty of sexually assaulting an intoxicated 26-year-old female passenger. Craggs noted that in his written decision, Lenehan admitted he “struggled to understand what this evidence proves.” His…

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About Jennifer Henderson

Jennifer Henderson is a freelance journalist and retired CBC News reporter. email: [email protected]

In 1995, Brenda Way was brutally murdered behind a Dartmouth apartment building. In 1999, Glen Assoun was found guilty of the murder. He served 17 years in prison, but steadfastly maintained his innocence. In 2019, Glen Assoun was fully exonerated.

Halifax Examiner founder and investigative journalist Tim Bousquet has followed the story of Glen Assoun's wrongful conviction for over five years. Now, Bousquet tells that story as host of Season 7 of the CBC podcast series Uncover: Dead Wrong.

Click here to go to listen to the podcast, or search for CBC Uncover on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast aggregator.

Two young white women, one with dark hair and one blonde, smile at the camera on a sunny spring day.

Episode 79 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne, is published.

Grace McNutt and Linnea Swinimer are the Minute Women, two Haligonians who host a podcast of the same name about Canadian history as seen through a lens of Heritage Minutes (minutewomenpodcast.ca). In a lively celebration of the show’s second birthday, they stop by to reveal how curling brought them together in podcast — and now BFF — form, their favourite Minutes, that time they thought Jean Chretien was dead, and the impact their show has had. Plus music from brand-new ECMA winners Hillsburn and Zamani.

Listen to the episode here.

Check out some of the past episodes here.

Subscribe to the podcast to get episodes automatically downloaded to your device — there’s a great instructional article here. Email Suzanne for help.

You can reach Tara here.

About Jennifer Henderson

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