Jian Ghomeshi sexual assault claims: CBC presenter faces 8 new physical and sexual abuse allegations, including one from TV actress

The former Q presenter has thus far denied the claims made against him

Jian Ghomeshi has been accused of further allegations of sexual abuse.

Eight women have now made assault claims involving the CBC presenter, with four new women coming forward since the initial allegations which were published in the Toronto Star on Monday.

Ghomeshi has strongly denied the original allegations, but could not be reached for comment on the latest claims.

The broadcaster – who formerly presented popular Canadian radio show Q – was sacked on Sunday by CBC in the wake of the allegations. A network spokesperson told the Toronto Star that it had received “information” that “precludes us from continuing our relationship”.

Ghomeshi is accused of being physically violent to women during sexual encounters, involving choking, slapping, beating and verbal abuse. The alleged incidents are said to have taken place from 2002 until the present date.

Two of the women claim that prior to the alleged assaults which took place in his home , he introduced them to a teddy bear, which he’s turn around just before he slapped or choked them, apparently saying, “Big Ears Teddy shouldn’t see this.”

All but one of the women has remained anonymous fearing repercussions concerning their career, retaliation from Ghomeshi and online backlash.

However, Canadian television actor Lucy DeCoutere, who appears in television series Trailer Park Boys, has agreed to be identified.

She asserts that she met Ghomeshi at the Banff television festival in 2003, and that the two went for dinner when she visited Toronto. She claims that after she went back to his home, the presenter physically assaulted her.

She alleges that without warning or consent he pushed her against the wall, choked her with his hands around her neck and then slapped her three times.

“He did not ask if I was into it. It was never a question. It was shocking to me. The men I have spent time with are loving people,” said DeCoutere.

“That was something I had never experienced before,” DeCoutere said. She left his house shortly after that in a taxi. “It did not escalate; it stopped.”

Ghomeshi is now suing CBC in a $50million lawsuit claiming general and punitive damages for breach of confidence and bad faith.

Last weekend, he published a 1,500-word denial on his Facebook page, because “as friends and family of mine, you are owed the truth”, arguing that the sexual activity was consensual.

He claims that the allegations are a smear campaign, engineered by an ex-girlfriend, who was angered after he ended their “casual” relationship. Allegedly, she and a freelance journalist sought to “find corroborators to build a case to defame me”.

“Let me be the first to say that my tastes in the bedroom may not be palatable to some folks,” he wrote.

“They may be strange, enticing, weird, normal, or outright offensive to others. We all have our secret life. But that is my private life. That is my personal life. And no one, and certainly no employer, should have dominion over what people do consensually in their private life.”

His friend, musician Owen Pallett, supported Ghomeshi’s alleged victims and said that how he will continue his friendship with the presenter “remains to be seen”.