An actor who starred in Outlander has been cleared by a jury after being accused of raping an unconscious woman in a hotel room.
Greggory Odjig – who played the role of Satehoronies in Outlander’s fourth season -was accused of raping a woman, 34, at a Glasgow aparthotel in May 2021.
The alleged incident was said to have occurred at the Premier Suites Plus services apartment in Bath Street, Glasgow, where cast and crew of the series were staying.
The prosecution claimed the woman was intoxicated and asleep or unconscious, and was therefore incapable of giving or withholding consent, when Odjig, 47, allegedly removed her lower clothing and carried out the act.
But the High Court in Stirling heard that ‘not a nanogramme’ of his DNA was found on intimate swabs taken from the woman following the alleged incident.
A jury at the High Court in Stirling took less than an hour to find the charge against the indigenous Canadian actor, 47, not proven.
Odjig bowed his head to the court following the jury’s unanimous verdict, with Judge Lady Poole adding that he had been acquitted by the decision.
An allegation that the 47-year-old had also hit the woman was dropped by the prosecution and he was previously formally acquitted of that alleged assault.
Greggory Odjig, has been cleared by a jury of raping a woman, 34, at the Premier Suites Plus serviced apartments in Glasgow’s Bath Street in May 2021
The actor, who wore traditional motifs on his jacket and deerskin tie, including a Golden Eagle brooch signifying closeness to deity, had denied rape.
As he left the court alongside his Canadian partner, Odjig said: ‘I have always known I was not guilty.
‘There are three things that cannot be hidden. You cannot hide our grandfather the Sun. You cannot hide our grandmother the Moon. And you cannot hide the truth.’
Following the verdict, he also hit out at Scotland’s controversial not proven verdict, saying it would hinder future attempts to revive his career.
‘I have tried many times since this started to find work, but every door is always closed to me,’ he said.
‘A not proven verdict will make it more difficult to my career back. I would have preferred not guilty, because that is what I am.’
During a five-day trial, the alleged victim, from Perthshire, said Odjig had been a friend of hers for four years.
The court heard she had gone to his suite after a day out in Edinburgh with her son and her sister as well as a group of actors and make-up artists who were filming in Scotland.
In a supermarket near the aparthotel, they bumped into Mr Gould and Odjig invited Mr Gould up to his two-bedroomed apartment to have a chat with them all.
Greggory Odjig played Satehoronies in series four of Outlander – he is pictured here in blue
Glenn Gould, (pictured) who played detective Jerry Commanda on the TV series Cardinal, during the trial that he had to take action to protect the woman during the alleged incident
She said she had later woken up to find her leggings in a suitcase after being poured a glass of sparkling wine by Odjig and passing out.
The woman claimed she felt as though she had been ‘poisoned’ and that her ‘body was ‘shutting down’.
However test later revealed she had ‘therapeutic levels’ of paracetamol and codeine in her blood.
Her sister claimed she found her unconscious in bed with Odjig and said both were naked from the waist down.
Odjig told his counsel, Donald Findlay KC, that the alleged victim had needed to be sick and he went to the bathroom with her where she vomited and then suggested it was ‘lay time’.
They then went into his bedroom were she was sick again in a garbage basket. Odjig said she had asked him to stay with her, so he got into bed and lay down beside her.
When asked by Mr Findlay if he had any sexual contact with the young woman that night, Odjig replied: ‘Definitely not.’
He added that there had been ‘spooning’ and said he had put his hand in the waistband of the woman’s leggings for ‘comfort’.
He said it was not true that the woman was unconscious when she was in bed with him, and said claims that she had nothing on her bottom half were ‘lies’.
During the trial, the woman said Odjig helped her into a bed and she slipped into a state of unconsciousness.
She said she later woke up hearing shouting and screaming. Odjig and Mr Gould were both in the room, having an argument.
Mr Gould told the court he tapped on Odjig’s bedroom door after it became ‘a little too quiet’.
He claimed to have found Mr Odjig ‘spooning’ the woman and alleged both were found to have no underwear on when the covers were removed.
The actor said he told Odjig, ‘Smarten up, what the hell’s wrong with you, you’ve got to learn to have respect for women.’
Mr Gould said everything became ‘kind of chaotic’ after he had spoken to Odjig in the bedroom, and the victim’s young son filmed what was happening on a phone.
He said: ‘Gregg was yelling at him and it looked like he was going to attack the boy.
Actor Glen Gould pictured as Chief Bird in the TV series Outlander
He claimed Odjig then tried to swing at him – a version disputed by Odjig who said Mr Gould had hit him first.
When asked by Kath Harper KC, prosecutor, how the incident came to an end, Mr Gould said ‘with a couple of upper cuts’.
Mr Gould claimed he pinned Odjig to the floor and told the woman, her young son and sister to go to a colleague’s quite downstairs where the police were called.
Mr Gould told the jury: ‘I’m a First Nations man from Canada and our job as men, as warriors, is to protect the women and children in our community.’
The court heard how Odjig agreed with Mr Findlay that he had not wanted to be filmed in bed with the woman.
The actor said he believed ‘it would have been bad publicity for a video to be posted of a cast member of Outlander in bed with a fan’.