Woman alleges on CBC that Ghomeshi hit her until her ears were ringing

A woman has come forward to CBC about what she alleges were physically abusive acts more than 10 years ago by Jian Ghomeshi, accusing the fired radio star of throwing her on the ground and “pounding” her in the head until her ears were ringing.

A spokeswoman for Ghomeshi did not respond to a request from The Canadian Press for comment.

In the radio interview aired Wednesday night, the woman, who was not identified, told CBC’s “As It Happens” that she went out with Ghomeshi more than a decade ago.

She said that while in his car on their first date he asked her if she would undo her buttons.

“And I said ‘No’ because I didn’t know you. And he reached over and grabbed my hair very hard and pulled my head back. It really took me off guard.”

The woman said she thinks Ghomeshi asked if she liked it but doesn’t remember her response.

She said that she went on a second date to Ghomeshi’s house, where she says they were flirting when “he grabbed my hair again but even harder, threw me in front of him on the ground and started closed-first pounding me in the head. Repeatedly, until my ears were ringing.”

“There was no conversation about anything, ” she alleged in the 11-minute CBC interview. “He didn’t ask me if I like to be hit. He didn’t ask me — I wasn’t expecting it, and he hit me repeatedly.”

The woman told CBC: “We were fully clothed. We weren’t having sex.”

CBC says it agreed not to use the woman’s name, and that it tried to reach Ghomeshi but did not hear back by air time.

Ghomeshi could not be reached by The Canadian Press on Wednesday evening. A lawyer for Ghomeshi directed inquiries to his publicist, who did not respond.

The CBC announced Sunday that it was parting ways with Ghomeshi because of “information” it had received about him. Shortly afterwards, his lawyers announced they were suing the CBC. That development was followed by a long Facebook post from Ghomeshi in which he alleged that he had been fired from the public broadcaster for his “sexual behaviour.”

He said in the Facebook post that he engaged in adventurous forms of sex that included role-play, dominance and submission, along with “rough sex (forms of BDSM).” The activities were consensual and he and his partner used safe words to signal when to stop the activity, he said.

In the interview on CBC, the woman said she did not go to the police over the alleged incidents. She said she decided to come forward with her story after a recent Toronto Star report.

“When this came to light a few days ago it gave me permission to speak. And I thought maybe someone will listen to me now.”

She also said: “I wish there was some way I could press charges against him now. It’s been a long time — I don’t know that I can anymore.”

The Star reported Sunday that it approached Ghomeshi with allegations from three women who say he was physically violent to them without their consent during sexual encounters or in the run-up to such encounters and that Ghomeshi — through his lawyer — responded that he “does not engage in non-consensual role play or sex and any suggestion of the contrary is defamatory.”

The Star reported none of the women filed police complaints and that their reasons given for not coming forward publicly included the fear they would be sued or face Internet retaliation.

The Star also reported that a fourth woman who worked at the CBC alleged that Ghomeshi “approached her from behind and cupped her rear end in the Q studio” and made a sexually obscene comment to her during a story meeting. The Star reported that Ghomeshi told the newspaper that he did not understand why it was continuing to pursue allegations when “my lawyers have already told you it is untrue.”

After earlier saying no formal complaint was made, the Canadian Media Guild said Wednesday the CBC staffer told a work colleague that alleged “inappropriate comments were made,” but that the colleague did not report it to union staff.

CBC said the woman it interviewed was not one of the four from the Star report. The woman told the network she did not know the women whose alleged accounts appeared in the Star.

A host on “As it Happens” said an interview with another woman regarding what the host called an “act of aggression by Jian Ghomeshi” would be aired Thursday morning.