Article content continued

Not calling her was “a reasonable and tactical decision made by Mr. White’s former counsel,” based on the fact, as the lawyer later explained in an affidavit, that she gave inconsistent versions of her recollections. White got a new lawyer after his conviction.

A tactical decision by defence counsel is not normally enough to warrant re-opening a trial, but Judge Gorman let Decker testify to see if it would alter his verdicts.

It does not cause me to alter any of my verdicts

She said she lived with White through the spring and summer of 2017, and that she has an addiction to opiates, and he to alcohol, but that their relationship was “great.” At the time of the fishing trip, she had given him all her pills, so he could dole them out slowly to wean her off. She said they would often fight, typically at her instigation, which is what happened the day of the assault. She said she threatened to kill herself by jumping overboard, and White said to go ahead. She said she tried to make it look like he was hurting her, which is how they came to be struggling when the other two crew intervened.

She did not report the assault until several months later, when she spoke to police after they responded to reports that he was assaulting her on a roadside.

She was interviewed by an officer, but as she told Judge Gorman, she lied and exaggerated for two reasons: to get back at White, and to divert police suspicion from her own possession of drugs and the fact she had just driven a vehicle. She claimed she was very high during the interview, but the police officer found her sober and had no concerns about her mental state.

So Judge Gorman re-opened the trial and heard her out, but it had no effect on the convictions. He concluded Decker was not being honest, and that her recanting was “purposefully false” and designed to help her husband, who faces a significant jail sentence.

“I do not accept Ms. Decker’s evidence as being reliable or honest. It does not, in the context of the totality of the evidence presented cause me to have a reasonable doubt. It does not cause me to alter any of my verdicts,” Gorman wrote in his new decision this week.

• Email: jbrean@nationalpost.com | Twitter: josephbrean