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Gary Botting, a lawyer for Gao, said outside court that his client, who he described as being naive when it comes to the kind of sex attack committed by Tucker, had no idea what was in Tucker’s mind and had done everything he could at the scene.

“By the time it became clear what his options were, the police had already arrested him.”

Court heard that Tucker’s wife, who was a friend of Gao during their time as students at the University of B.C., asked Gao if he would meet with her husband, who was looking for clients in his employment with a financial company.

Just 10 days before the attack, the two men met and became fast friends but when Tucker learned that he could not work as a financial broker due to his prior criminal record, things began to unravel quickly for him.

On the night of the attack, the two men met and shared a bottle of sake at a park, with Tucker being angry and despondent that he’d lost his job and blaming others for his failures.

When they headed to Tucker’s residence at the UBC Endowment Lands, Tucker led them to the Birney residence and peered inside a window.

Later, before they entered Tucker’s home, Tucker climbed the balcony and peered into his window at his wife and a friend of his wife, with Gao at trial describing this behaviour and other behaviour by Tucker that night as being “paranoid.”

After they spent time socializing in his home, Tucker smashed and broke a door in an angry outburst and tried to slash his wrists.