TORONTO (AP) — A judge on Thursday found a former Canadian Broadcasting Corp. radio host not guilty of sexual assault in a case that had sparked a nationwide conversation about consent and sexual harassment.

Jian Ghomeshi had faced four counts of sexual assault and one count of choking based on alleged incidents involving three women. He is the former host of "Q," a popular radio show on culture heard in Canada and on many U.S. public stations.

Justice William Horkins acquitted Ghomeshi on all charges, saying it is difficult to have trust in witnesses who selectively or deliberately suppress information. He said the three women were less than fully frank and forthcoming.

"What is troubling is not the lack of clarity, but the shifting facts from one telling to the next," the judge said of one of the three complainants. But he stressed the acquittal was not the same as asserting the events in question never happened.

Dozens of women gathered outside the courthouse to protest the verdict, some chanting, "Ghomeshi guilty." A member of the City Council, Kristyn Wong-Tam, tweeted: "Ghomeshi never denied choking + punching the survivors. Yet the women were put on trial."

Ghomeshi still faces another sex assault trial based on allegations from a fourth complainant in June.

Police launched an investigation in 2014 after more than 12 women contacted various media sources to allege that Ghomeshi had assaulted them.

Ghomeshi, who first gained fame as a member of the 1990s satirical pop band Moxy Fruvous, defended himself in a 1,500-word statement on Facebook, saying women consented to having "rough sex" with him and that he was the victim of a disgruntled ex-girlfriend. The CBC fired him.

The first woman to testify in the trial acknowledged that she emailed Ghomeshi a bikini-clad picture of herself a year after he allegedly sexually assaulted her, pulling her hair and punching her in the head. She claimed on the witness stand to have forgotten about the email and another flirtatious email she sent a year after.

Television actress Lucy DeCoutere, the second woman to testify, acknowledged that she told Ghomeshi that she wanted to have sex with him a day after he allegedly choked and slapped her. DeCoutere also acknowledged she sent Ghomeshi flowers days after the alleged assault. And in a handwritten love letter days later she wrote: "I love your hands."

DeCoutere, who waived her right to have her name not published, testified that she didn't remember the emails.

The third witness in the case, whose name is protected by a publication ban, acknowledged that she deliberately misled police when she didn't tell them that she had engaged in some sexual activity with Ghomeshi after the alleged assault took place. The woman testified that she had trouble breathing after Ghomeshi put his hands around her neck as they were making out in a Toronto park.

Ghomeshi's sister said the ordeal has been extremely painful for the family.

"Jian is not a symbol to us, but a beloved brother and son," Jila Ghomeshi said. "Our hardest burden has been our feeling of helplessness as we have watched him endure a punishment that was not only prior to a verdict but prior to any semblance of due process for well over a year."