Man convicted of raping woman with unexplained memory loss

Article content

The severe memory loss of a woman who was raped by a man she had just met in a Calgary bar remains unexplained, a judge found Wednesday.

But Judge Ken McLeod said one thing was certain: Yoseph Mulugeta Abreha had forced himself on the woman against her will.

The Calgary Court of Justice judge reached the same conclusion as a jury in September 2021, namely that 27-year-old Abreha was guilty of sexual assault.

Article content

Abreha’s jury conviction was overturned last year by the Alberta Court of Appeal and a retrial was ordered due to errors by the trial judge.

But McLeod rejected Abreha’s evidence that there had only been sexual touching and kissing between him and the plaintiff and that this had happened with her consent.

Instead, he accepted the woman’s testimony that she was sexually assaulted by Abreha in his SUV in the early hours of August 24, 2019.

The victim said she could barely remember being on the dance floor of the now-closed Music nightclub in the city’s Beltline district, or Abreha attacking her in a residential area unknown to the Edmonton woman.

McLeod believed the woman’s testimony that she tried to physically defend herself against the attack and at one point “verbally begged him to stop.”

The judge agreed with defense attorney Jill Shiskin that there were significant periods of absence of information in the woman’s version of events.

However, he said her memory loss was not explained by the evidence before him.

“There is no clear evidence as to why this was the case. I assume it had nothing to do with alcohol.”

Article content

Evidence that the woman’s urine was tested for the date rape drug GHB 14 or 15 hours after the encounter is inconclusive because the drug’s effects typically wear off within 18 hours, McLeod noted.

“There is no evidence that this was caused by drug use,” he said.

“That remains a possibility based on the evidence available, but the medical evidence remains neutral on that point.”

McLeod agreed with prosecutor Donna Spaner that Abreha’s claim that he honestly but mistakenly believed the woman consented was untrue.

“There is no possibility that Mr. Abreha simply had an honest but false belief,” the judge said.

“I am convinced beyond a doubt that (the victim) did not consent to the sexual acts with Mr Abreha.”

McLeod will decide on the sentence on August 23. Abreha will remain in custody.

[email protected]

X: @KMartinCourts

Share this article on your social network