'It was an accident': PhD student charged with attempted murder says he slipped on Signal Hill
The accused in an attempted-murder trial took the stand Friday morning to say it wasn't a botched murder-suicide but an accident in a moment of passion that led him and another man tumbling down Signal Hill in April 2017.
CBC News cannot use his name due to a publication ban. Nor can we name the other man involved. We also can't tell you why.
Wearing a black suit with a formal collar and a matching black tie, the Iranian man said he simply slipped on ice and grabbed the complainant for balance. The two tumbled three metres down the cliff, before getting stuck in the bushes below.
The complainant later went to police saying the accused tried to kill him.
"It was an accident," the accused said Friday. "It is not the real story. It is not a true story."
Helping hand through dark depression
Both men were Iranian engineering students in the same PhD program at Memorial University in St. John's during the 2016-17 school year.
The accused had just arrived in Canada and found fellow countrymen in the engineering program, but had a hard time connecting with them.
They were conservative Shi'a Muslims. He was a liberal-minded, European-educated young man with a different world view.
The disconnect made him feel left out — until the complainant took him under his wing.
"I was lonely and got depressed," the accused said. "He was supportive and he really helped me."
When the complainant's wife and child went back to Iran, the accused moved in with him. They were inseparable.
The accused described how they would hug and sometimes kiss but said he never thought much of it, since polite kisses on the cheek are common among men in his country.
Text messages between the accused and his brother in Iran have suggested the accused was having dark thoughts about himself and the complainant around the same time. Some appeared to show him saying he was thinking about killing himself and the complainant.
On Friday, he said he was just being dramatic to convince his brother to come to Canada and take care of him.
Different versions of what happened in 2017
It came to a head on April 7, 2017, when the accused and complainant took a walk to Ladies' Lookout on Signal Hill.
The complainant told him his wife was coming back soon, and he was sad they couldn't spend more time together.
What happened next depends on whom you believe.
The complainant said the accused rushed toward him, grabbed him and tried to pull them both off the cliff.
The accused said he rushed toward him to put his hands on his shoulders to comfort him. The terrain was icy, he said, and he slipped and fell.
However it started, it finished with the complainant kissing the accused on the lips when they came to a stop in the bushes.
The accused said he noticed the complainant begin to panic after the kiss, so he took him by the hand.
"I realized he was scared. I told him I won't tell anybody what happened. His wife, his supervisor. I won't tell anybody."
The two men made their way back up the hill to safety, and then headed back to the university.
Once there, the complainant disappeared for a little while. Minutes later, the police showed up.
"That's when they arrested me."
Back in court in April
The complainant denied any same-sex relationship when he testified earlier in the trial. On Friday, the accused said their relationship never progressed beyond a few hugs and one emotional kiss on Signal Hill.
Even that is heavily frowned upon in their home country.
"[People] don't have any choice because it is [met with] capital punishment in my country," said the accused.
Crown prosecutor Jude Hall cross-examined the accused in the afternoon. Their exchanges got heated at times as they both struggled to understand each other with the language barrier between them. The accused maintained the entire thing was an accident.
The accused is the last witness in the trial. The crown and defence will give closing submissions on March 5.
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