COURT OF APPEAL FOR ONTARIO
RE:
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN (Respondent) – and – RICHARD AQUILINA (Appellant)
BEFORE:
GOUDGE, SIMMONS AND ARMSTRONG JJ.A.
COUNSEL:
Robert Sheppard
for the appellant
Anthony K. Graburn
for the respondent
HEARD:
August 12, 2005
On appeal from the conviction by Justice Edward R. Browne of the Superior Court of Justice dated January 13, 2004.
A M E N D E D A P P E A L B O O K E N D O R S E M E N T
1In our view, none of these verdicts are unreasonable. There was evidence sufficient to sustain each conviction. However there was a serious discrepancy on the evidence related to the prostitution conviction: the conflict between the complainant’s evidence about the newspaper ad and the evidence that the police could not locate the ad. The trial judge did not address this in his reasons, leaving an uncertainty of the pathway (in Justice Binnie’s terms) he may have taken to resolve this conflict. In our view this necessitates a new trial on that charge. The appeal of conviction is otherwise dismissed. The sentence appeal is abandoned.