A young person was charged with robbery contrary to section 343(b) of the Criminal Code following a violent group attack on a complainant at a basketball court in Toronto on August 12, 2015.
The central issue was identity.
The Crown relied on eyewitness identification evidence, recognition evidence from a security supervisor, and photographic evidence.
The defendant was found not guilty.
The court found that while the eyewitnesses were credible and honest, the identification evidence was unreliable due to the chaotic circumstances of the attack, the poor quality of the photographs, discrepancies in witness descriptions, and the limited nature of the security supervisor's prior acquaintance with the defendant.
The court concluded that the Crown failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was the individual in the red t-shirt involved in the robbery.
