Toronto woman devastated after sexual assault case thrown out due to court delays

WARNING: Some of the details in this story may be disturbing to some readers.

It’s been a devastating outcome for a Toronto woman who tells CityNews the sexual assault case against her alleged rapist was unexpectedly thrown out because of a lack of available courtrooms and staffing shortages.

Judge Brock Jones, who was residing over the case, called it “an inexcusable state of affairs.”

Emily Ager said she did everything right after she was allegedly raped in her own home 18 months ago. She reported the incident to police immediately and pressed charges. She never expected court scheduling issues to be the reason her alleged assailant would walk free.

“The man who raped me will now walk the streets while I continue to pick up the pieces of glass that the broken system left behind,” Ager told CityNews. “I did everything that was encouraged and everything that was suggested … How did I get here? There has to be another option.”

She said the incident occurred when she had a friend and acquaintance over to her Toronto apartment. Ager alleges she went to bed around 2:30 a.m. when they were still there.

“I woke up at 6 a.m. and he was on top of me, inside of me, it was pretty horrific,” said Ager. “I was frozen, I couldn’t move, I couldn’t speak, I felt like I couldn’t even see straight … it felt like inside I was going to explode, but I couldn’t do anything.”

Ager said she then locked herself in the bathroom with the shower on, petrified.

“I couldn’t even process it. and it was just like I just want this all to go away. I just don’t want to feel this pain. How could this happen to me in my own home where I’m supposed to feel safe,” shared Ager in an emotional interview.

She was able to call her parents who immediately called the police. Ager gave a statement and then went to Women’s College Hospital for testing.

Ager formally pressed charges later that week. “I made that decision that what happened is not okay.” 

Her trial was scheduled for July 5, 2023 but was delayed to November 7, 2023 because of staffing shortages and a lack of available courtrooms.

But Ager never returned to court. Last week, she learned the case had been thrown out. It had been over 18 months since the incident and the defence argued the right of the accused to a timely trial had expired.

In his decision, Judge Jones wrote, “For months … trials were unable to be heard simply because of the inability of the government to find and retain staff to keep the courtrooms open.”

“This case should serve a chilling reminder that this inexcusable state of affairs must never be allowed to happen again,” continues the decision.

Michael Wilchesky, a Toronto lawyer specializing in civil sexual assault cases, said this has been happening more and more “because it doesn’t seem like there is the appropriate funding for the courts.”

Wilchesky said the decision to consolidate six courthouses scattered across the city to one building in downtown Toronto could be partly to blame.

The 16-storey courthouse, which cost over $950 million to build, was opened in March on Armoury Street.

“A lot of the court staff, it just doesn’t work for them to come downtown. Either they don’t live near here or it’s too expensive to park or to get here and they don’t want to so it’s not worth it and I think that that is causing a lot of issues,” explained Wilchesky.

“I think this case in particular just seems to be, understandably, just such a horrendous example of what everyone would see as injustice here,” said Wilchesky.

A spokesperson for the Attorney General said any courtroom closure is “unacceptable.”

“We are working to ensure sufficient court staff are available to allow courts to function and to ensure justice is delivered,” read the statement.

They said they’ve offered full-time employment opportunities to existing on-call staff and are recruiting new, permanent, full time staff through $6 million in additional funding and will continue to recruit and onboard new staff to support Ontario Court of Justice courthouse in Toronto

The spokesperson added there have not been any courtroom closures in Toronto because of court staff in almost two months.

“We need change. We need the system and the government to take accountability for what happened and prevent this from happening in the future,” said Ager.