The King v. W.(A.) 2024

The client agreed to loan woman whom he had previously had sexual relations with a $100 loan to help her make rent for the month at her apartment in Penticton BC.  The woman flirted with the client prior to his arrival at her apartment to give her the money by sending him unsolicited photographs of herself in her underwear and suggesting to the client that he would be “inside her” during the meeting.  The client went over and gave her the money and they ended up having sexual relations.  In the days afterwards the client attempted to flirt again with the complainant but her tone changed after she got the the money and now seemed disinterested in the client.  The client called her out about that and asked how long she could continue living life this way, just eking her way from rent payment to rent payment.  The woman immediately cut off communication with the client and a few days later went to police and alleged she had been raped by the client.  Mr. van der Walle came onto the case late and immediately filed an application to cross examine the complainant on her text message communications with the client that had a sexual aspect to them.  The application was successful and the defence was permitted to ask these questions and use the text messages at trial.  At the trial Mr. van der Walle successfully cross examined the complainant and unearthed numerous inconsistencies between her police statement and the text messages and her claims of sexual assault.  It was then decided that the client would not take the stand and the defence argued that the Crown’s only witness was of such low quality the case had to be dismissed without even hearing the accused’s side of the story.  The judge agreed and acquitted the client on the basis of the complainant’s terrible credibility problems.  Not guilty.