OTTAWA — Former Canadian hostage Joshua Boyle made a brief video appearance in an Ottawa courtroom today after being charged with 15 offences, including sexual assault, following his release from captivity in Afghanistan.
Boyle's appearance in an orange jumpsuit from the Ottawa Carleton Detention Centre lasted less than two minutes before Justice Norman Boxall agreed to adjourn the case until Monday.
Before the matter was adjourned, Boxall was told Boyle has retained high-profile Ottawa criminal lawyer Lawrence Greenspon as part of his defence team, although Greenspon was not in court.
Court documents show that the 15 charges against Boyle include eight counts of assault, two of sexual assault, two of unlawful confinement and one count of causing someone to "take a noxious thing, namely Trazodone," an antidepressant.
There is also a charge of uttering a death threat and another of misleading a police officer. The purported acts allegedly occurred between Oct. 14 and Dec. 30 after Boyle returned to Canada.
A publication ban prevents identifying the alleged victims or any witnesses. The charges have not been proven in court.
Boyle and his American wife, Caitlan Coleman, were taken hostage in 2012 by a Taliban-linked group while on a backpacking trip in Afghanistan. Coleman was pregnant at the time and the couple had three children in captivity.
Lawyer Eric Granger, who represented Boyle during the hearing, was also not in court today, although on Tuesday he said his client is "coping."
"He's as OK as anyone is who is suddenly and unexpectedly facing charges for the first time," he said.
The Prime Minister's Office also said it would not comment since the investigation is ongoing, although a government official has confirmed that the Boyles met with Justin Trudeau at the family's request.
The prime minister generally meets with any returning hostage with connections to Canada, and discussion of the hostage-taking was the main purpose of the meeting with the Boyles, said the official.
Boyle has said he and his wife were helping ordinary villagers in a Taliban-controlled area of Afghanistan when they were seized. He told The Canadian Press that conditions during their five-year ordeal changed over time as the family was shuffled among at least three prisons.
He described the first as "remarkably barbaric,'' the second as more comfortable and the third as a place of violence in which he and his wife were frequently separated and beaten.
Boyle said their captors from the Taliban-linked Haqqani network raped his wife and had also caused her to suffer a miscarriage. Shortly after landing in Toronto after being rescued, he demanded that his kidnappers be brought to justice.
In an interview with ABC News, Coleman, who is from Stewartstown, Pa., recalled that guards dragged her husband from their cell, and one of them threw her on the ground, shouting, "I will kill you, I will kill you" before assaulting her.
She also said their captors beat their eldest son with a stick.
The couple and their children had gone to Boyle's parents home in Smiths Falls, Ont., after being rescued.
A CHRONOLOGY OF JOSHUA BOYLE AND HIS FAMILY
Canadian Joshua Boyle, his American wife Caitlan Coleman and their three young children were released from captivity last October, five years after the couple disappeared in Afghanistan. Here is a timeline of their case.
July 2012 _ Joshua Boyle and Caitlan Coleman travel to Russia. They later move on to Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and finally to Afghanistan over the course of several months.
Oct. 8, 2012 _ Caitlan Coleman's father hears from Boyle for the last time before the couple is captured. Boyle said he was in an Internet cafe in what he described as an ``unsafe'' part of Afghanistan. The last withdrawals from the couple's bank account were made Oct. 8 and 9 in Kabul. An Afghan official later said the couple had been abducted in Wardak Province, a rugged, mountainous Taliban haven.
Late 2012 or early 2013 _ Coleman's first child is born. Coleman was pregnant at the time of her capture, and her due date was in December 2012.
June 4, 2014 _ Coleman's family releases two videos of Coleman and Boyle in captivity, saying the clips were provided to the family in 2013. Boyle and Coleman are seen calling on the U.S. government to free them and their child from Taliban captors.
November 2015 _ Coleman's family receives a letter from Coleman in which she says she has given birth to a second child in captivity.
Aug. 30, 2016 _ A video of Coleman and Boyle is posted on YouTube. In it, the Boyle says that their captors will kill them and their children ``if the policies of the Afghan government are not overturned, either by the Afghan government or by Canada, somehow, or the United States.'' A Taliban official has said the video was recorded in 2015.
December 2016 _ Another video is posted online, this time featuring Coleman, Boyle and their two young children. In the video, Coleman urges governments on all sides to reach a deal to secure the family's freedom.
Oct. 12, 2017 _ U.S. officials say Pakistan secured the family's release. According to officials, Coleman had a third child while in captivity. In a press release, the Pakistani military says Boyle and Coleman will be ``repatriated to the country of their origin.''
Oct 14, 2017 _ Boyle demands that his kidnappers be brought to justice for the "murder'' of his infant daughter and the rape of his wife while they were in captivity.
Oct 15, 2017 _ A Taliban spokesman rejected as "false and propaganda'' the allegations of Boyle that his child was murdered and his wife raped during his captivity in Afghanistan.
Oct 16, 2017 _ Boyle says he and his wife decided to have children while held captive because they always planned to have a big family and decided, "Hey, let's make the best of this and at least go home with a larger start on our dream family.''
Oct 17, 2017 _ Boyle said his wife had to be rushed to the hospital in Smith Falls, Ont., but he did not specify why she was taken there.
Nov. 20, 2017 _ Caitlan Boyle tells ABC News how she and her husband did the best they could to raise young children in brutal conditions, using bottle caps and cardboard as toys and teaching their eldest son geography and astronomy.
Jan 2, 2018 _ Boyle was arrested in Ottawa and charged with 15 offences. Court documents list them as eight counts of assault, two of sexual assault, two of unlawful confinement and one count of causing someone to ``take a noxious thing, namely Trazodone,'' an antidepressant. He also faced a charge of uttering a death threat and another of misleading a police officer.
