In Steven Galloway’s defamation trial in Vancouver, a defendant testified about the mental health struggles she says she witnessed in the woman who accused him of rape and sexual assault.
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The trial of author Steven Galloway’s defamation lawsuit heard testimony in Vancouver about the mental health struggles of the woman who accused him of rape and sexual assault, allegations he denies.
Mandi Gray, a defendant in the case, testified that she received an email in December 2016 from the woman, identified as A.B. with her name subject to a publication ban, about how media reports covered Galloway.
According to the testimony, the email said the public coverage of Galloway contained his admission of a two-year affair but did not mention claims of sexual assault against him, and it said, "He's being exonerated in the news."
Galloway has told the court he and A.B. had a two-year affair that ended in 2013.
The court heard that retired judge Mary Ellen Boyd was hired by the University of B.C. to look into the allegations against Galloway and found the assault claims unsubstantiated.
The court learned last month that A.B. was no longer asserting in her defence that Galloway assaulted her, but that she had reported he did.
The university fired Galloway, described in the court proceedings as the former chair of its creative writing program and author of "The Cellist of Sarajevo."
Gray testified that, at the time she said she knew A.B. was struggling, there was "an exchange of money from (the university) to help offset legal costs and her therapy so she could meaningfully participate in the Boyd investigation," adding she did not know how much A.B. received and that it sounded like it went to therapy or legal counsel.
Gray also agreed Monday that she told A.B. she had reached out to media about her own allegation of rape during her studies at York University, and that she described the comments as putting "an option on the table that was beneficial in my own experience."
The court heard Gray has previously been involved in a high-profile trial stemming from her time at York, in which the conviction of the man she alleged raped her was overturned on appeal.
In testimony earlier Monday, Gray said she had become a "safe person" for A.B., who had talked of a "suicide plan" and expressed "suicidal ideation" during a phone call, while Gray acknowledged it was not a clinical assessment.
Gray told the court she was concerned A.B. might harm herself shortly before the claims against Galloway came to light in November 2015, and she described telling A.B. something like, "I know you've been weighing whether or not you want to report, and now there are these voice mails and this unwanted contact, this could be a time."
Gray also testified that A.B. told her she had tried to report the claims to a University of B.C. official in 2013, describing it as, "to put it mildly, an unpleasant experience," and said A.B. did not want to go further at the time because of what Gray said was a lack of institutional infrastructure.
Gray cried as she testified, saying it had been "so hard to watch" A.B.'s mental health deteriorate in the lead-up to the trial.
Gray testified that A.B. had attempted suicide in February and was hospitalized after another attempt in June, as she described her statements in the months before the defamation trial.
The court heard Gray also testified last week that she regretted some of her online posts about Galloway.
According to the testimony described in court, Gray’s lawyer, Vanshika Dhawan, said last Thursday that Gray was no longer defending some of her online statements as responsible communications or arguing they were made honestly under "qualified privilege," while Dhawan said Gray was still defending certain statements as fair comment.
Gray concluded her testimony on Monday, and the trial was scheduled to continue Tuesday.
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