Sponsored by EasyDNS https://easydns.com/NotOnRecord In Episode 192, we dissect the powerful new Ontario acquittal R v J.A., 2025 ONSC 4531: an 18-year-old boy is accused of assaulting his 17-year-old girlfriend after prom, only for him to discover (by guessing her password) that she was cheating; what follows is an explosive, toxic text-message war with hundreds of messages, repeated “you r*ped me” accusations, vague apologies, and almost no explicit denials; the Crown insisted his silence and equivocal replies amounted to adoptive admissions of guilt, but Justice Bordin delivers a masterclass ruling that explains why rapid-fire teenage texting cannot be read in isolation, why overlapping messages and missing context destroy tone, why Snapchat’s auto-delete feature is a nightmare for justice, how phone calls and in-person talks still matter, and why the entire relationship dynamic (including motive to fabricate) must be considered before treating silence as guilt; this is required reading for anyone facing text-heavy sexual assault charges and a stark reminder that disappearing messages and cherry-picked screenshots can turn innocent people into convicted ones.
