It’s showtime for former CBC star Jian Ghomeshi.

A narcissist who craved the spotlight and the adoration, he now returns to the stage — but not to the Q studio where he once broadcast every weekday morning to a loyal audience in Canada and the U.S., but to a downtown Toronto courtroom where he now goes on trial for sexual assault and choking.

On Monday, undoubtedly in one of his trademark trim, well-tailored suits, Ghomeshi, 48, will once again brave the crush of media cameras and reporters to enter Old City Hall to be tried by a judge alone, his fierce — some would say ruthless — defence attorney Marie Henein at his side.

In the fall, Ghomeshi pleaded not guilty to four charges of sexual assault and to one of “overcome resistance” by choking — involving three women between 2002 and 2003. Trailer Park Boys actress Lucy DeCoutere - whose allegations include the choking charge and one count of sexual assault - has waived her confidentiality but the identities of the other two complainants are covered by a publication ban.

This courtroom drama will be closely watched by Canadians across the country. The curious will be interested in the sensational particulars of what Ghomeshi has termed his “mild form of Fifty Shades of Grey” lifestyle. Women will be closely watching to see who will really be on trial: the man indicted or the complainants?

With his velvet voice whispering in our ears since he created Q in 2007, Ghomeshi had developed an intimate relationship with his many listeners on the national broadcaster. He came across as hip and cerebral, sensitive and progressive, his interview style charming everyone from Barbara Walters to Joni Mitchell.

He certainly didn’t sound like a man who would ever be accused of sexual violence. And perhaps that’s part of our fascination. If these allegations are proven, how did so many of us get him so wrong?

We soon learned, of course, that the charges against Ghomeshi came as much less of a shock to some of those who knew him outside the radio control booth.

He was a constant figure on the Toronto social scene with a rotating bevy of women much younger than himself. Those dates hadn’t been privy, it seems, to the warnings. Stories of bad behaviour were apparently an open secret shared in whispers from one young woman to the next in the arts and media fields. There were red-flags at his workplace as well. And yet the tempestuous star was too successful for anyone to dare rein in.

Ghomeshi certainly believed his own press clippings; his sense of impunity knew no bounds. Fearing the Toronto Star and freelance journalist Jesse Brown were about to publish scandalous stories about his “rough sex” life, he thought he could prove his innocence by showing his CBC bosses what they later said was “for the first time graphic evidence that Jian had caused physical injury to a woman.”

He claimed it was consensual and thought it would exonerate him. Instead, he was shown the door.

Ghomeshi’s delusions continued when he posted his infamous 1,500-word essay on Facebook, complaining that he’d been fired for his BDSM lifestyle by CBC executives who feared “the risk of my private sex life being made public as a result of a campaign of false allegations pursued by a jilted ex girlfriend and a freelance writer.”

His fans were initially outraged: How dare the stuffy CBC stick its puritanical nose into their star’s bedroom? But his PR-crafted bombast quickly backfired: his flippant dismissal of the accusations as those of a vengeful paramour outraged women who had a very different version of events. Any sympathy for him swiftly evaporated when they stepped out of the shadows and told their stories.

And there were many of them.

They voiced eerily similar accounts of non-consensual violence from a charming date who turned on a dime. Several mentioned how Ghomeshi’s “Big Ears Teddy” bear - his constant crutch to battle anxiety - would be turned around during the alleged attacks. Ghomeshi claims the women involved in these incidents consented. The women said they’d never come forward before because they feared his power; they feared that they’d never be believed.

Now three of these complainants will face Ghomeshi in court. And waiting to rip them apart will be one of the best defence lawyers in the country.

I only hope they’re prepared for what lies ahead.

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When the allegations against Jian Ghomeshi first hit the headlines in the fall of 2014, then-Chief Bill Blair urged the women to go to police. “Sarah Smith” tried to warn them against it.

She had once believed in the justice system. Despite her fears about her reputation and her future, she reported that she’d been sexually assaulted by two colleagues who’d drugged and raped her. But following a long and gruelling judge-alone trial, she was horrified to watch them walk free. At the end of the day, with the Crown unable to prove it wasn’t consensual, it was her word against theirs and they had the advantage of that infamous “reasonable doubt.”

“Your nightmares about what may happen in the courtroom will come true – despite what anyone will tell you,” warned the woman who spent more than five days being eviscerated on the witness stand by a female lawyer. “You will indirectly be called a liar, over and over again. Your sexual history will be brought forth despite the Rape Shield law, because the defence will find an indirect way to do so. ‘Shameful’ and yet inconsequential acts from your past will be used against you (Have you ever drank alcohol? Had sex? Unless you’re a nun, don’t get on the stand).”

The trauma of the court process will rival the alleged sexual assaults that brought them there, warned Smith, her real name protected by a publication ban.

“There really is no safety in numbers. Despite multiple women with similar allegations, possibly even word-for-word accounts of your own personal experience, this will likely have little impact in the courtroom. In the end, it may not matter how many of you there were, or how your experiences were so similar that they could not possibly be deemed coincident; they will somehow be dismissed.

“You will be accused of trying to achieve some sort of personal gain by coming forward with these allegations. It can’t simply be because it is the right thing to do.”

So while she applauded Lucy DeCoutere — one of Ghomeshi’s alleged victims — for her bravery in speaking up and going to police, Smith predicted that she’ll be devastated by how this will play out for her and the others.

“In the end, it is likely the justice system will fail you, and you will wonder why you ever agreed to come forward to begin with. You will beat yourself up for it. Even worse, you will realize that despite your best efforts, such abuse against women will never stop.

“The ‘he said, she-said’ game, the game forever without witness, will continue. Assault against women will be free reign until changes are made to statutory law.”

michele.mandel@sunmedia.ca