Joshua Boyle, former Taliban hostage, charged with sexual assault, confinement: reports

Joshua Boyle, the Canadian man who was freed in fall along with his family after five years of captivity from a Taliban-linked group, has been charged with several crimes including sexual assault, according to various reports.

Boyle is facing 15 charges in all, including sexual assault, unlawful confinement and uttering threats, CBC News reported, citing court records. He made a court appearance in Ottawa on New Year’s Day and was scheduled to appear again in court on Wednesday morning, both CTV and the CBC News reported.

Boyle’s attorney said in a statement to NBC News that there was very little he could say about the case and that “the matter is before the courts.”

“Mr. Boyle is presumed innocent. He's never been in trouble before,” said attorney Eric Granger. “No evidence has been provided yet, which is typical at this early stage.”

“We look forward to receiving the evidence and defending him against these charges” he added.

Related: Freed hostage says captors killed daughter, raped wife

Boyle said that while there was little he could confirm, the media reports “about the identity of the charges and who is facing them is not known to me to be inaccurate at this point.”

Granger told the Associated Press that his client faced at least a dozen charges, including sexual assault, assault and forcible confinement.

Boyle and his American wife, Caitlin Coleman, were kidnapped by militants while hiking in Afghanistan in 2012. Coleman was pregnant at the time.

She, Boyle and their three children born in captivity were rescued by Pakistani troops in October after five years of being held as hostages.

Boyle said after his release that the insurgents killed an infant of theirs while they were held hostage and that his wife was raped by a guard.

"The stupidity and the evil of the Haqqani Network's kidnapping of a pilgrim, and his heavily pregnant wife, engaged in helping ordinary villagers in Taliban-controlled regions of Afghanistan, was eclipsed only by the stupidity and evil of authorizing the murder of my infant daughter," Boyle said at the time.

Members of the Haqqani Network and the Afghan Taliban have denied the allegations.

There is a publication ban that bars reporting on information that could identify any alleged victims or witnesses in the Canadian case.