Scottish court reveals details surrounding death of Owen Sound restaurant owner

A Scottish court hearing has revealed new details about three men facing charges in the death of an Owen Sound, Ont., restaurateur, and the measures they allegedly took to escape police.

Sharif Rahman, 44, was attacked outside of The Curry House restaurant in downtown Owen Sound, on Aug. 17, 2023, after confronting three men about an unpaid $150 bill. The 44-year-old husband and father of a young girl, died a week later in a London, Ont., hospital.

Robert Evans, 24, faces a charge of manslaughter, while his father, Robert Busby Evans, 47, and his uncle, Barry Evans, 54, are charged with being accessories after the fact. All three appeared in Edinburgh Sheriff Court on May 22, for a preliminary hearing on an extradition request made by Canadian authorities.

The court provided CBC News with exclusive access to documents prepared by the Ontario Provincial Police and Crown — containing details that Canadian authorities have so far refused to share with the media or public.

The filings, along with testimony during the hearing, reveal that the men are members of an Irish Traveller community located near Manchester, England, and had been in Owen Sound — along with at least two other family members — for a number of days before the alleged attack. Robert Evans Sr. was reportedly working in the area, despite being in Canada on a visitor visa.

Irish Travellers are a traditionally nomadic group similar to, but ethnically distinct from, the Roma people.

Police were called to Rahman's restaurant at 9:23 p.m. for a report of an assault in progress, arriving minutes later to find the restaurateur lying on the ground outside, gravely injured.

A witness to the confrontation told officers that he saw Robert Evans Jr. punch Rahman in the face, causing him to fall backward. As he hit the pavement, there was a loud thud, likened to the sound of "a bowling ball falling six feet from the air."

It is alleged that Robert Evans Jr., his uncle Barry, and another, previously unidentified family member — Robert Justin Evans — were present during the altercation. The court was told that Barry Evans instructed Robert Evans Jr. to "run," then left to collect their vehicle, a grey SUV, picking him up from another downtown location.

In the aftermath, all three men reportedly fled to Collingwood, Ont., 65 kilometres away.

Robert Justin Evans has not been charged in connection with the alleged events.

The procurator fiscal, Scotland's equivalent of a Crown prosecutor, told the court that cellphone records document "a flurry" of calls made to Robert Evans Sr. — who was not present at the restaurant — by all three men in the minutes and hours after the altercation.

The senior Evans quickly left a local Owen Sound hotel where he had been staying with his brother. Surveillance photos in the court files show Barry Evans visiting the reception desk on two occasions the following day — first to retrieve what was left of their cash deposit, and then to request the return of their registration documentation and a photocopy that had been taken of his passport.

That same day, Robert Evans Sr. reportedly arranged transport for his son to Toronto's Pearson International airport and booked him an evening flight to Manchester.

To date, Canadian authorities have provided the public with almost no information about the case, refusing to specify why the accused were in the country, how and when they left, or discuss details about the altercation that led to Rahman's death.

In August 2024, almost a year after the restaurateur's death, police issued a brief news release saying "arrests" had been made, but gave no further insights.

It wasn't until Dec. 19 that year that investigators finally disclosed the names of their suspects and confirmed that the father and son had been apprehended in late July, and the uncle at the end of October. Police Scotland said at the time that all three had been arrested in the Edinburgh and Dalkeith areas in connection with an international warrant.

Ontario court documents about the case remain sealed, and a CBC News request for a judicial review of the file has been pending since mid-March.

Questions from CBC News about the case have gone unanswered, with the Ministry of the Attorney General, the Crown and courts all saying there is no "publicly available information" to share.

The preliminary hearing in Edinburgh court is set to resume on in June, with a full extradition hearing set for mid-August. All three men remain in custody.

Thursday's preliminary hearing ran well beyond the allotted time, as the court began the process of grappling with legal arguments about "dual criminality."

The defence is asking whether the accessory after the fact charges made under Canadian law are similar enough to the "attempting to pervert the course of justice" charges that exist in Scots law to be dealt with by a single court, or whether the case needs to be tried in both countries.

The arguments dragged on so long that a prison officer who was hand-cuffed to Barry Evans fell asleep in the box.

A group of Evans family supporters watched the proceedings from the public gallery, calling on the men to "smile" and asking if they were alright. They said they had travelled from the Manchester area for the hearing, but refused to answer other questions.

"It's a disgrace," said one of the men, suggesting the case should never have come to court.

Jonathon Gatehouse can be contacted via email at [email protected], or reached via the CBC's digitally encrypted Securedrop system at https://www.cbc.ca/securedrop/