A youth was charged with 17 offences arising from three robberies at fast food outlets in Oshawa.
The co-accused pleaded guilty and implicated the defendant.
The Crown sought to rely on the co-accused's guilty plea as a prior statement under the principled exception to the hearsay rule.
Although the court found the guilty plea met the threshold of necessity and threshold reliability, it failed to meet the standard of ultimate reliability.
The co-accused testified he was not paying attention during the guilty plea proceedings and did not intend to implicate the defendant.
The court found the co-accused to be a disreputable person capable of deceit and concluded that it would not be safe to convict solely on his admissions.
The Crown failed to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and all charges were dismissed.
