Frank Stronach found guilty of indecent assault and sexual assault
· Toronto Sun
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Frank Stronach was found guilty on two of five charges by Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Friday morning.
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The Magna International founder was found guilty of indecent assault and sexual assault. His sentencing was delayed until Sept. 17.
The indecent assault charge involved complainant V.T., who was a legal secretary and dates back to an incident in the fall of 1977. After having dinner with Stronach at a restaurant, she testified that the assault happened at Stronach’s apartment in the Balliol St. and Mount Pleasant Rd. area.
The sexual assault involved complainant A.S., who was a cocktail waitress at Rooney’s at the time of the incident, happening sometime between Jan. 4, 1983 and Dec. 31, 1984, at Stronach’s Harbourfront condo.
He was found not guilty on 10 counts including count 1 of rape (historic offence); count 2 of indecent assault (historic offence); count 3 of sexual assault; count 4 of unlawful confinement; count 5 of rape; count 7 of sexual assault; count 8 of sexual assault; count 9 of rape (historic offence); count 10 of indecent assault (historic offence) and count 11 of sexual assault.
The trial, which began in February after some delays, initially included 12 charges from seven complainants, but prosecutors ended up deciding to proceed with seven charges from four complainants. The charges stemmed from alleged incidents between 1977 to 1990. None of the women were known to each other.
Judge Molloy then added to the collapse of the Crown case by announcing that she couldn’t convict based on the evidence of a fourth complainant due to her testimony being “not even remotely reliable,” including her changing evidence about what year the alleged assault happened.
Stronach, who did not testify at the Toronto trial, pleaded not guilty to all the charges. This was not a trial by jury as Stronach elected to stand trial before Molloy.
Stronach’s second sexual assault trial has been delayed until May of next year. The 93-year-old’s Newmarket trial was previously set to start in the fall, but was postponed as he waited for the verdict on his Toronto sexual assault case.
With files from Michele Mandel.