A B.C. Supreme Court jury has acquitted Kelsey O’Gorman of the aggravated assault of her boyfriend in June 2012.

After deliberating for one day, the six-woman, five-man jury found the Crown had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that O’Gorman, 25, had deliberately thrown a pot of boiling water at Justin Watt, who was then her boyfriend.

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The jury also acquitted O’Gorman on three charges of assaulting Watt after the couple moved from Nanaimo to Victoria in 2011.

“This has been an almost unbearably stressful experience for Kelsey,” said Martin Allen, her lawyer. “This is not the kind of thing somebody wins. This is the kind of thing a client survives.”

O’Gorman is an outreach worker for people who are mentally ill and drug addicted, Allen said. She testified that she had to put her plans for medical school on hold because of the charges.

During the two-week trial, Watt, 24, testified that on the evening of June 25, 2012, he and O’Gorman returned from work and he put a large pot of water on to boil for spaghetti. O’Gorman entered the apartment, angry that he had not held the door for her. The argument escalated. He stood at the sink washing vegetables while she continued to berate him and began batting his head, he testified.

Watt said he turned around just as O’Gorman threw the pot at him in a sweeping motion from a distance of three to four feet. The burns took the skin off his body and have left life-long scars.

O’Gorman testified that she asked Watt to grab the door for her as they entered the apartment but it swung in her face. They began to argue. She said she was already thinking of leaving the relationship and that Watt knew that. O’Gorman said she was going to take a drive, and Watt grabbed her right arm and twisted it, jerking her forward, she testified.

O’Gorman said she fell. Her arm was very painful and she wanted to get an X-ray. Watt told her to go into the living room and he would get some ice. He put the pot of water on to boil.

O’Gorman, her arm wrapped a towel with a bag of frozen peas, went into the kitchen and stood in front of the stove to see if the spaghetti was ready.

Watt asked her if she was OK. She said she thought she needed a doctor. Watt got mad and turned so they were face to face. He got closer and threw her off balance, she testified.

O’Gorman put her left hand down into the pot, then moved it in a sweeping motion, screaming. She hit the edge of the pot, accidentally tipping it and spilling water on Watt, she said.

Allen called the incident an unfortunate accident. He characterized Watt as an unreliable witness who was argumentative and evasive. He also suggested Watt was defrauding the insurance company paying his disability because he was involved in a computer business and posting messages online about his active social life.

The Crown said there was no evidence to support any inference he was defrauding the insurance company.

ldickson@timescolonist.com