Ms Jackson

The defendant was charged with assaulting his wife on July 14, 2009 and assaulting his son on February 6, 2011, both incidents occurring in the family home.

The court found the defendant guilty of assaulting his wife but acquitted him of assaulting his son.

The wife's testimony regarding the 2009 incident was found credible and corroborated by photographic evidence of injuries.

The son's testimony regarding the 2011 incident, while establishing that the defendant caused injury, was found to be consistent with an accidental rather than intentional assault, as the son had persistently crowded his father and the defendant was entitled to physically move him away.

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.