The Crown appealed the respondents' acquittals for criminal negligence causing death following a fatal horseback riding accident involving a ten-year-old novice rider.
The Crown argued the trial judge erred in excluding evidence of prior incidents involving the horse and expert evidence regarding safe trail ride operations.
The Court of Appeal found that the trial judge erred in excluding one prior incident and the expert evidence, as the expert evidence met the necessity criterion.
However, the appeal was dismissed because the Crown failed to demonstrate with a reasonable degree of certainty that the verdicts would not necessarily have been the same had the errors not occurred.
