The two sides have now made their final arguments in the retrial the former Halifax taxi driver charged with sexually assaulting a female passenger.
Bassam Al-Rawi is accused of sexually assaulting a female passenger inside his taxi in May 2015.
Al-Rawi has entered provincial court the same way every time -- in silence -- but it was during this second trial he testified in his own defence.
The court has heard two different versions of what happened after an intoxicated woman took a cab in May 2015.
In his final submissions, Al-Rawi's lawyer, Ian Hutchison,recounted his client's testimony that the female passenger's DNA was found on Al-Rawi's lips - transferred there after she kissed him on the cheek.
Al-Rawi says she crawled into the back seat - and took off her pants.
He said the button on his own jeans was undone and the zipper slightly down so he could be more comfortable while driving. There was a condom in the side console because he's carried one since his twenties.
Friday, the Crown accused Al-Rawi of concocting excuses when presented with evidence.
The complainant, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, has told the court she was drunk on the evening of May 22, 2015, and does not remember leaving a downtown bar.
She testified that her next memory was being in a hospital with two nurses and a police officer.
The woman said she would not have consented to sex with the cab driver.
Senior Crown counsel urged the court to rely on the testimony of the Halifax police officer who came upon the scene.
That officer testified that she saw the passenger unconscious in the back seat of the cab, partially naked.
The Crown asserted that the DNA on Al-Rawi's lips came from the assault and called a “crime of opportunity.”
Al-Rawi's lawyer said in court Friday that waiting for this process to be concluded has been a “cause for anxiety” and asked for a decision to be rendered by July. Court schedules made that impossible.
“There's really nothing I can say or we can say at this point in time,” said Jennifer MacLellan, the senior Crown counsel who handled the case.“It will, however, be returning for a decision Sept. 4th.”
Al-Rawi left court without comment as he waits for that decision. It’s the second time he's done so. His first acquittal was overturned by the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal last year after it concluded the judge erred in law by finding there was no evidence of lack of consent.
In his decision at the first trial, Judge Gregory Lenehan said: "clearly, a drunk can consent” -- a remark that sparked a national debate over intoxication and the capacity to consent to sex.
An independent judicial review committee last year dismissed several complaints against Lenehan, saying it found no evidence of impermissible reasoning or bias in his ruling.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Heidi Petracek and The Canadian Press
