After losing an appeal, an Ontario woman has to pay close to $24,000 to the man she maintains sexually assaulted her.
The man sued her in small claims court last fall after a sexual assault charge against him was dropped before trial. He said he was "humiliated and degraded" after the allegation, and lost his job, according to CBC News.
The woman was ordered to cover the cost of his legal expenses — $18,842 in legal fees and $5,000 in damages, The Toronto Star reported.
She appealed the Welland, Ont. ruling, with her lawyer Jonathan Collings arguing that the decision relied on inappropriate sexual stereotypes, said CBC.
On Thursday, Ontario Superior Court Justice James Ramsey dismissed her appeal, saying the original judge's ruling was not "improper."
A publication ban protects the identity of the woman in the case.
In the original case, Deputy Judge David Black found the woman's testimony unreliable. After thinking the man cheated on her, she accused him of sexual assault. Black said that she lied to police to get back at her ex, CBC News reported.
It plays into well-worn stereotypes of revenge-seeking women. Lenore Lukasik-Foss, Sexual Assault Centre Hamilton Area
The woman testified that she was sore after the alleged attack, but the judge leaned on the evidence of the examining doctor, who said she did not see any bruising on the patient.
Some sexual assault advocates condemned this week's decision, saying it further discourages victims from going to the police.
Lenore Lukasik-Foss, director of the Sexual Assault Centre Hamilton Area, told the Hamilton Spectator that the case helped re-enforce false stereotypes of "the jilted girlfriend" and of "revenge-seeking women."
Foss highlighted the fact that sex assault victims often don't recall details or show obvious emotion afterwards. Some even try to repair the relationship with the attacker, if it is someone close to them.
Earlier on HuffPost: