The fate of Bassam Al-Rawi lies in the decision that Judge Ann Marie Simmons will make sometime after hearing closing arguments from counsel on May 30.
Al-Rawi’s retrial began in January and has included hours of testimony from himself, as well as the female complainant who he allegedly sexually assaulted after she was found half-naked in the backseat of his taxi by a Halifax Regional Police officer.
READ MORE: Former Halifax taxi driver accused of sexual assault finishes testifying in retrial
The alleged incident happened four years ago on May 23, 2015.
A thick book of photographs taken by police was used as evidence in the retrial and now that the evidence has been heard by the court, the media was allowed to access some of the photographs.
The complainant has testified that she has no memory of the taxi ride, she drank on an empty stomach that night and was extremely intoxicated.
Const. Monia Thibault was the police officer who came across Al-Rawi’s parked taxi on a south-end street in the early morning hours of May 23, 2015.
She told the court that she found Al-Rawi turned towards the backseat of his Honda Civic, positioned between the legs of the female passenger who was half-naked and unconscious.
Al-Rawi told the court that information is inaccurate.
During cross-examination on Thursday, Al-Rawi was scrutinized for nearly eight hours by Crown prosecutor Carla Ball.
READ MORE: Former Halifax cab driver Bassam Al-Rawi defends himself against sexual assault charge in court
Ball questioned Al-Rawi at length about discrepancies she flagged between the statement he gave to the investigating officer and the testimony he delivered in court.
The exhibit photographs show the driver seat tilted backwards — Al-Rawi said that was because he is tall and needed to be comfortable when he drove.
That is contrary to the testimony Const. Thibault gave that his seat was tilted back because he was turned towards the female passed out in his backseat.
The Crown attorney asked Al-Rawi to carefully review the transcript of the interview he gave to the investigating officer after he was arrested.
In the statement given, Al-Rawi didn’t say he stopped on a south-end street to allow the woman to get out and urinate but he testified in court that he did.
Al-Rawi stated to the court that breaking down the exact statement he gave puts him in a “weak position” because at the time, he hadn’t slept for over 24 hours.
When the Crown attorney asked Al-Rawi again why he didn’t tell the investigating officer that the female got out to urinate, Al-Rawi told Ball that he honestly couldn’t remember.
Another part of Al-Rawi’s testimony that the Crown prosecutor scrutinized was why Al-Rawi asked the female passenger about “boy drama” and offered her compliments.
Al-Rawi told the Crown that the taxi bylaws didn’t prohibit him from complimenting women and that he wasn’t doing so in a flirtatious manner, it was only in an effort to calm the passenger down and encourage her to give him directions.
When Const. Thibault found Al-Rawi’s parked taxi, it was far in the opposite direction of where the complainant lived at that time.
Both the Crown and defence will present their closing submissions to Judge Ann Marie Simmons on May 30.