Gregory Ryan Skerkowski

The appellant appealed his convictions for assault, unlawful confinement, sexual assault, criminal harassment, threatening, and assaulting a police officer, arising from incidents involving his ex-girlfriend.

He argued the trial judge erred in instructing the jury on credibility and reasonable doubt, failed to give a limiting instruction on disposition evidence, and that the guilty verdicts were inconsistent with his acquittal for administering a noxious substance.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, finding the jury instructions were adequate, the disposition evidence was admissible without objection, and the verdicts were not inconsistent.

The appellant appealed his conviction and sentence.

The Court of Appeal found that the Crown should not have been permitted to cross-examine the appellant on statements that had not been proven voluntary, as there was no clear waiver of a voir dire.

The trial judge had relied on these statements to impugn the appellant's credibility.

Furthermore, the court found the verdict unreasonable regarding 24 bills found in another person's home, as there was insufficient evidence of control.

The appeal was allowed and the convictions were set aside.

Given that the appellant had already served over a year of his sentence, a stay of proceedings was entered.

The appellant appealed a decision of the summary conviction appeal court dismissing his appeal from conviction.

The Court of Appeal found that the trial judge was alive to the frailties of the identification evidence and that the combination of identification and confirmatory evidence made the verdict reasonable.

The appeal was dismissed.

The appellant, a career criminal with a lengthy record, appealed his concurrent 21-month sentences for two counts of breach of recognizance.

The trial judge had treated the appellant as being at the 'worst end of the continuum' simply because he was subject to a section 810.2 recognizance.

The Court of Appeal held this was an error in principle, as it would inevitably result in maximum sentences regardless of the gravity of the breach or rehabilitative steps.

The appeal was allowed and the sentences for the breach of recognizance counts were reduced to 12 months concurrent.

The appellant appealed his total sentence of 43 months imprisonment for two sets of offences, including impaired driving and driving while disqualified.

The appellant had a lengthy record with eight prior convictions for drinking and driving.

The Court of Appeal upheld the global sentence as fit but found the sentencing judge erred in denying two-for-one credit for pre-sentence custody due to an adjournment requested by the appellant's counsel.

The appeal was allowed in part to reduce the sentence on the second impaired driving charge by 1.5 months to reflect the proper pre-sentence custody credit.