Article contentAs she “pieced things together,” she remembered being on the couch next to a man.Article content“It is very foggy,” she said of her memory. “I remember him kissing me, going down inside my underwear and inserting his fingers inside me. I remember it hurting. I remember it being aggressive.”Article contentShe said she didn’t like it and asked the man to stop. She said she told the man she was gay.Article contentDNA evidenceArticle contentThe woman contacted police April 11 after getting advice from her sister. She was examined by sexual assault nurses at the Halifax Infirmary, and police collected five empty beer cans and two pairs of her underwear for forensic testing.Article contentTwo weeks later, the woman was leaving work when a man standing by a taxi parked on Brunswick Street approached her and said, “Do you remember me?”Article contentShe said she panicked because the man had “all the characteristics” of the person she remembered being in her apartment, including a familiar accent. She said she circled back past the taxi in her vehicle to get its number and emailed the investigator as soon as she got home.Article contentArticle contentIn court, the complainant said she could not confidently identify Markos as the man who was touching her at her apartment. But she said she recognized him as the person who approached her a few weeks later as she was leaving work.Article contentMarkos’s DNA was found on two of the beer cans and inside one pair of underwear. The mixed profile in the underwear also contained DNA from another male.Article content“No meaningful comparison could be made to the minor component of this mixed profile due to the weakness of some components,” an agreed statement of facts said.Article contentCasino Taxi records indicate Markos’s cab picked up a fare on Barrington Street in downtown Halifax on April 10, 2023, at about 12:50 a.m. and drove to the woman’s apartment in Dartmouth, where it was parked from about 1:02 a.m. to 3:09 a.m.Article contentAn Amharic interpreter translated the trial proceedings for Markos, who was represented by lawyer Drew Rogers. The defence elected not to offer any evidence after Crown attorneys Eric Taylor and Christopher Arisz closed their case.Article contentArticle contentJudge’s analysisArticle contentIn his analysis, the judge said the taxi records and DNA evidence satisfied him that Markos drove the woman home and drank beer in her apartment.Article content“But the rest of the case for the prosecution depends on the reliability of the memory of (the complainant), and I do not find it reliable,” Atwood said. “Data cannot make up for damaged memory.Article content“Mr. Markos likely now regrets his decision to approach (the complainant) outside the Alehouse and identify himself to her, however, it does not seem to be the action of a person with a guilty mind.”Article contentThe judge said the evidence did not establish that the woman, who left her friends downtown without saying goodbye or taking her jacket and wallet with her, was the only passenger in the cab.Article content“I believe that due to (the complainant’s) high level of intoxication, it is reasonable to conclude that Mr. Markos had to assist her getting to her apartment door,” Atwood said. “This might plausibly have led to Mr. Markos’s DNA being transferred directly to (her) hands, and then from her hands onto her black underwear.
Halifax taxi driver acquitted of sexually assaulting intoxicated woman whose memory was ‘unreliable’
