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Client found not guilty of Sexual Assault after trial in the Superior Court, Barrie. J.G. was charged with a historical sexual assault of his cousin. The allegation was that sometime between 2007 and 2009, J.G. drove his younger female cousin home after she was too drunk to walk home and during the drive stopped and committed a sexual assault. Joseph Neuberger, Neuberger & Partners LLP, Toronto Criminal Lawyers, was retained to defend the charge. The defence team consisted of Joseph Neuberger, Diana Davison and Grace Condello. The client flatly denied the allegation. The evidence of the complainant consisted of two statements provided in 2020 and essentially rested upon repressed memories that were recovered 11 years later during a stressful argument with her husband over separation. Joseph Neuberger and the defence team carefully constructed a detailed cross-examination of the complainant outlining key inconsistencies between her two statements, and then her in-court testimony at trial. In addition, cross-examination focused on the storyline of the complainant, her drinking habits in 2007 to 2009, including the night in question, and the evidence of her “repressed” memories. Of particular interest was cross-examination that established her first statement noted that she had experienced blackouts and had a patchy memory. Her second statement, expanded considerably on additional details that included a memory of a lack of memory. The client and his wife were prepared as defence witnesses. They testified about the family dynamic at the time of the allegations, how close the family was and how the complainant remained a close cousin and friend through 2007 to 2019 when the allegation was made. As this was a judge alone trial, Joseph Neuberger drafted detailed written submissions detailing the frailties of the evidence and why J.G. ought to be acquitted. The judgement of the court adopted the defence submissions that “the reliability of the complainant’s memory is integral to the Crown’s case. When her memory takes on the appearance of a chalkboard which can be erased and rewritten at will, her evidence loses all reliability.” The judgement is important with respect to assessing recovered memories, and the inherent frailties. In particular, the Court noted that recovered memories should be viewed with suspicion. In our opinion, courts must resist new formulations of “recovered memory syndrome” and recognize the frailty of junk science about memory.