Case Summary

The accused, charged with multiple counts of sexual assault, sexual interference, and criminal harassment involving six different complainants, applied to sever counts 7 and 8 from the indictment. The Crown applied to admit similar act evidence across the counts to assist in identifying the perpetrator. The court held that the similar act evidence application was premature and should be decided during the trial. The court dismissed the severance application, finding a strong factual nexus between the incidents and concluding that the benefits of a single trial outweighed the risk of prejudice to the accused.