Grace Hyunju Choi

The appellant challenged a sexual offence conviction and sought leave to appeal a four-year penitentiary sentence.

The court held that extrinsic evidence to contradict the complainant about prior sexual conduct and alleged abuse was irrelevant to any live issue other than credibility and was therefore inadmissible under the collateral fact rule, apart from s. 276 of the Criminal Code.

The court also rejected arguments that the trial judge improperly compartmentalized the defence evidence, erred in relying on flight as consciousness of guilt, or mishandled credibility findings.

The conviction appeal was dismissed, and although leave to appeal sentence was granted, the sentence appeal was also dismissed.