The accused was tried on charges of sexual assault and sexual interference arising from allegations by a child complainant concerning abuse said to have occurred when she was three or four years old while the accused was in a parental role.
The court admitted the complainant's police statement under s. 715.1 of the Criminal Code despite a six-year delay, holding that the reliability concerns could be explored in cross-examination and that exclusion risked losing important evidence and increasing trauma to the child witness.
On the merits, however, the court found significant reliability concerns in the complainant's evidence, including material inconsistencies about the abuse, bath-time circumstances, and whether the events may have been a dream.
Applying the criminal burden of proof and the framework governing an accused's testimony, the court was left with a reasonable doubt and acquitted.
