2 total
Crown appeal dismissed; new trial for sexual assault upheld due to inadequate reasonable doubt analysis.
The accused was convicted at trial of sexual assault and forcible confinement.
A majority of the Court of Appeal for Ontario set aside the convictions and ordered a new trial, finding the trial judge failed to explain why certain factors did not raise a reasonable doubt regarding fabrication.
The Crown appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada.
The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal, agreeing that the trial judge erred in law by failing to give adequate consideration to whether the evidence raised a reasonable doubt.
Crown sentence appeal dismissed despite finding conditional sentence inappropriate for child pornography offences.
The Crown appealed a 9-month conditional sentence imposed on the respondent for possession and distribution of child pornography.
The Court of Appeal agreed that a conditional sentence was inappropriate and that a substantial reformatory sentence was called for, given the gravity of the offence and the volume of images involved.
However, because the respondent had already served seven and a half months of the conditional sentence and had recently obtained psychiatric counseling, the Court declined to interfere and dismissed the appeal.
