On December 21, 2015, alleged serial rapist Paul Batchelor was arrested by Ottawa Police for sexual assault and released on bail. His case took years to wind through the legal system and ended with his shocking acquittal in June 2019.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Beaudoin accepted Batchelor’s evidence that he had consent in both cases, a claim that differed wildly from the stories the women told at trial. They detailed horrific accounts of sexual assault in 2015 at Batchelor’s Sandy Hill apartment, near the University of Ottawa, where he was a student at the time.
In both cases, the judge said Batchelor had consent for all of the sexual activity and noted consent could be given through actions without speaking a single word. Both women testified they did not remain silent, but rather protested against the attacks they described.
Justice Robert Beaudoin took a lot of heat for acquitting the accused rapist, as well as for the wording he chose to use in doing so.
“Consent can be given without a word being spoken,” he told the court.
Then, regarding the testimony of one victim who said she screamed while Batchelor anally raped her, Justice Beaudoin said:
“Curiously, no one seems to have heard her cries. It is difficult to accept that he would have continued assaulting [the woman] with his knowledge that her very loud screams could be heard.”
Paul Batchelor is now accused of raping nine other women – many while he was on bail during that four-year period.
The Ottawa Citizen reports Paul Batchelor’s history of sexual assault dates back to at least 2010.
[…] Paul Batchelor case I wrote about last week highlights why we need Bill C-5 to […]