The accused, L.S., brought a pre-trial application for disclosure and production of third-party records from the Hamilton Police Service (HPS) and the Catholic Children’s Aid Society (CCAS) in a sexual assault and sexual interference prosecution.
The application sought HPS occurrence reports, CCAS records related to the current investigation and prior investigations, and exchanges of information between the Crown, HPS, and CCAS.
The court dismissed the request for HPS records, prior CCAS records, and inter-agency exchanges due to insufficient evidentiary basis and lack of likely relevance.
However, the court ordered the CCAS records already in the Crown's possession, related to the current investigation and specifically concerning the complainant's disclosure of a video of the child, to be produced to the court for review under section 278.5 of the Criminal Code, finding them likely relevant to the complainant's credibility and necessary in the interests of justice.
