The accused applied to sever a five-count indictment involving sexual assault, criminal harassment, breach of probation, and two child pornography possession charges.
Applying the balancing framework from R. v. Last, the court considered prejudice to the accused, factual nexus between counts, strategic decisions about testifying, and trial efficiency.
The court found that the historical sexual assault allegation, involving a different complainant and events more than a decade earlier, lacked a legal or factual nexus to the other charges and risked significant moral prejudice if tried together.
The remaining four charges arising from events in 2012 were also severed into two separate trials to preserve the accused’s ability to testify selectively.
The court ordered three separate trials, with the sexual assault charge to be heard by a different judge.