Trial opens for Toronto doctors accused of gang sex assault

[spaminator]

Trial opens for Toronto doctors accused of gang sex assault
By Shawn Jeffords ,Toronto Sun First posted: Monday, April 14, 2014 10:56 PM EDT | Updated: Monday, April 14, 2014 11:01 PM EDT
TORONTO - The trial of two Toronto doctors accused of drugging and gang sexual assault began Monday with a Crown attorney describing some of the alleged attack.
Cara Sweeny told court the alleged Feb. 12, 2011, incident began when a 23-year-old woman met with the men at a downtown Toronto hotel for career advice. They shared drinks and ended up at another bar, where the woman lost vision and then blacked out.
Sweeny alleged the doctors, Amitabh Chauhan and Suganthan Kayilasanathan, drugged the woman and took her to a hotel room where she was sexually assaulted.
Sweeny said the woman will testify that she remembers only shreds of the alleged attack. However, she does recall one man standing in front of her and the other behind her, both taking her clothes off and talking to her, she said.
“They said she was a ‘dirty girl’ and ‘don’t you like this?’” Sweeny told the court.
Sweeny said the woman visited two hospitals for pain related to the attack after she left the hotel. A rape kit was administered at the second hospital.
The Crown also said DNA tests showed the men’s bodily fluids were found on the woman’s genitals, underwear and bra.
A 29-year-old woman, who cannot be identified because of a publication ban, testified Monday that she had a date with Kayilasanathan in 2008 which bore some similarities to the other woman’s experience.
She said that after going to a bar with the doctor she blacked out, waking up in his bed the next morning. She doesn’t know if she was sexually assaulted, but felt so weak she couldn’t get up. She felt “nailed to the bed,” she told the court.
“I’ve been hungover before,” she said. “That was no hangover.”
But Kayilasanathan’s lawyer, David Humphrey, questioned the reliability of the woman’s memory, focusing on how many drinks she had that evening. He pointed out that when she initially contacted police she thought her date with the doctor was in 2009, a year after it actually occurred.
The woman is a "similar fact" witness. Neither doctor has not been charged with any crime in relation to the woman.
Canadian-born Chauhan and Sri Lankan-born Kayilasanathan are charged with administering a noxious substance and gang sexual assault.
The trial continues Tuesday.
Trial opens for Toronto doctors accused of gang sex assault | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

The horrors of socialist health care.

 

[spaminator]

Doc's lawyer questions woman's memory
By Shawn Jeffords ,Toronto Sun First posted: Tuesday, April 15, 2014 08:01 PM EDT | Updated: Tuesday, April 15, 2014 08:08 PM EDT
TORONTO - The blurred memories of a 29-year-old woman took centre stage at the drugging and sexual assault trial of two doctors Tuesday.
The woman, who cannot be identified because of a publication ban, was on the witness stand again, testifying about a date she went on with one of the accused doctors in 2008. She is a “similar fact” witness, and her testimony could be admitted into the trial of Drs. Amitabh Chauhan and Suganthan Kayilasanathan, who are accused of administering a noxious substance to and sexually assaulting a 23-year-old woman in a Toronto hotel room in February 2011. Neither doctor is charged with a criminal offence related to the 29-year-old.
On Monday the woman testified that she blacked out during a date with Kayilasanathan, waking up in his bed the next day. She said she felt “nailed down” and could not move. She also said she felt like she was in “survival mode” and wanted to leave but couldn’t because she was too weak. That was not consistent with her previous experience drinking or being hungover, she testified.
But the doctor’s lawyer, David Humphrey, pressed the woman Tuesday about gaps in her memory from that night. He underscored that she has neither claimed to have been drugged nor sexually assaulted.
“I’m telling my story the way I know it,” she said, acknowledging that she has never accused the doctor of any wrongdoing.
Humphrey also asked the woman why she didn’t see a doctor if she had believed she may have been drugged or sexually assaulted.
“I trusted he was a professional and nothing would have happened,” she said, but acknowledged that after hearing of Kayilasanathan’s arrest in 2011, she came forward to police.
The trial continues Wednesday.
Doc's lawyer questions woman's memory | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun

 

[spaminator]

Accused doctor told cops DNA evidence would exonerate him
By Shawn Jeffords ,Toronto Sun
First posted: Wednesday, April 16, 2014 07:21 PM EDT
TORONTO - DNA evidence will exonerate him one of two doctors accused of drugging and gang sexually assaulting a 23-year-old woman told police after his arrest, his trial heard Wednesday.
Dr. Suganthan Kayilasanathan, accused of the Feb. 12, 2011 alleged attack, told a Toronto Police detective he didn’t have sex with the woman at a downtown Toronto hotel. He didn’t believe his life-long friend, and co-accused Dr. Amitabh Chauhan, had sex with her either.
Both men have pleaded not guilty.
In a recording of a police interview from Feb. 18, 2011 played in court, Kayilasanathan asks Det. Dan Luff if a “tox screen and rape kit” where administered. When the investigator tells him it was, he says that DNA testing would clear him of any crime.
“I have faith in the legal system and everything that you guys do and I know that’ll exonerate us at the end of the day,” he said.
During the opening of the case Monday, Crown attorney Cara Sweeny said DNA evidence shows both men’s bodily fluids were on the woman’s genitals, bra and underwear.
Initially, Kayilasanathan told Luff he had been instructed by lawyers not to speak, he eventually relented, talking with the detective for 35 minutes.
When asked why the woman’s black thong underwear had been removed, Kayilasanthan says he doesn’t know how that happened.
“Did she have a bad dream or something like what happened?” he asks Luff.
“That won’t explain the bruising to her breasts and the scratches on her back,” Luff responds.
Along with the interview being entered into the record, Luff’s approach when questioning Kayilasanathan was the subject of cross-examination in court.
Crown attorney Michael Lockner argued the interview should be deemed admissible despite the techniques, which included Luff telling the doctor several lies, including that his co-accused had shared “his side of the story.”
In fact, Chauchan did not speak with police after his arrest.
Kayilasanathan’s lawyer David Humphrey accused the detective of purposely strip-searching the doctor and putting him in an uncomfortable interview room to “soften him up” in anticipation of the interview.
Luff acknowledged that he wanted to get a statement out of the doctor, but said he was just following procedure when it came to search.
“I’m trying to push his buttons to see if he’ll respond,” Luff said of the interview.
In the end, the lawyers agreed the statement will be included in the trial, which continues Tuesday.
Accused doctor told cops DNA evidence would exonerate him | Home | Toronto Sun

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

Y'know, if you waterboard him, you'll get a confession in less than an hour.

 

[spaminator]

Ex-girlfriend testifies at doctors' gang sex-assault trial
By Shawn Jeffords ,Toronto Sun First posted: Tuesday, April 22, 2014 10:35 PM EDT | Updated: Tuesday, April 22, 2014 11:12 PM EDT
An ex-girlfriend of a doctor accused of gang sexual assault wishes she’d reported an incident where she alleges she was drugged and sexually assaulted by the man in 2003.
The 31-year-old woman, who cannot be identified because of a publication ban, told his trial Tuesday she didn’t come forward more than a decade ago because she feared it would ruin her fledgling military career. But after learning that Dr. Amitabh Chauhan along with co-accused Dr. Suganthan Kayilasanathan, had allegedly drugged and gang sexually assaulted another woman in 2011, she reluctantly spoke with police.
“I wish I had reported it,” she said of the alleged 2003 attack. “Maybe (the other woman) wouldn’t have been affected.”

Ex-girlfriend testifies at doctors' gang sex-assault trial | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun

 

[spaminator]

Alleged victim recounts the events leading up to meeting with accused doctors

By Michele Mandel ,Toronto Sun
First posted: Thursday, April 24, 2014 08:19 PM EDT | Updated: Thursday, April 24, 2014 08:34 PM EDT
She is trying so hard to keep it together.
She is the alleged victim of two GTA doctors now on trial for drugging and sexually assaulting her and the pretty, young woman, her name and identifying features protected by a publication ban, is understandably nervous as she takes the stand in the downtown courtroom and studiously avoids looking at Dr. Amitabh Chauhan and Dr. Suganthan Kayilasanathan.
As the 26-year-old begins to speak, it soon becomes clear that she is so desperately far from any territory that is familiar — this is a formidable woman who’s never been anyone’s victim before.

Alleged victim recounts the events leading up to meeting with accused doctors |