Jury delivers not guilty verdict in Kelowna sex assault trial

Photo: Colin Dacre

A 12-person jury has found Brandon Emslie, 27, not guilty of sexual assault.

Emslie was charged with a single count of sexual assault stemming from an October 2018 incident at his Kelowna home. His jury trial began earlier this month.

A woman, who was 31 years old at the time of the incident, accused Emslie of raping her while the two were spooning naked in his bed, some time around midnight on Oct. 26, 2018.

The woman’s identity is protected led under a publication ban and Castanet has referred to her as FC.

She testified earlier this month that she had said “no” multiple times during the incident, and had previously told Emslie that any consent she might give him was dependent on him wearing a condom, which she says he never wore.

FC stayed the night at Emslie’s home and he drove her home the next morning. She texted him “I really had a nice time,” that next day. She attended Kelowna General Hospital for a rape kit five days later.

Emslie contended that FC never told him "no," and he believed she had consented to the sexual activity through her actions and her “dirty talk.” Defence counsel Joe Gordon said Emslie “honestly but mistakenly believed she had communicated consent.”

While FC and Emslie testified to radically different versions of the incident, the jury ultimately concluded the defence had raised a “reasonable doubt” - the standard of proof in criminal matters.

The jury began deliberating on the matter Wednesday afternoon, and delivered their decision at about 10 a.m. Thursday.

The jury’s acquittal of Emslie comes a month after another acquittal in a local sexual assault trial. Four young men were acquitted of sexual assault following a two-week trial last month, on the suggestion of the Crown. Mid-trial, Crown prosecutor Patricia O'Neil directed Justice Ker to find the accused not guilty, due to what she described as the “frailty of the evidence.”