Alberta Justice explains why sex assault case was dropped due to court delays

CALGARY – Alberta’s Justice Department says a judge’s decision to dismiss charges against a man accused of sexually assaulting a girl because the case took too long to get to trial cannot be appealed.

Greg Lepp, associate deputy minister of justice, said there were delays in the case when bad weather and illness prevented witnesses from attending court. He said new evidence also came forward that caused delays in the process.

“The charges are finished and there is no way of breathing life back into them,” Lepp said Friday.

“The prosecutor who was responsible for this case did not disagree with the defence that it had taken too long. And in the final result, the Crown did not oppose the application to have the charges terminated because that is what the law provided.”

Under the Charter of Rights an accused has the right to a trial within a reasonable amount of time.

Lepp said the delays shouldn’t have happened, the alleged victim has a right to be frustrated and the government is conducting a review in the hope that it doesn’t happen again.

The case involves a woman, who is now 27, who says she was sexually assaulted by a person in a position of trust from age nine until she was 17.

She came forward six years later and charges were laid in September 2009.

Word of the case broke in the Alberta legislature Thursday, with the Opposition Wildrose Party blaming the judge’s decision on a shortage of crown prosecutors.

Lepp said that isn’t true.

“I really hope that public doesn’t conclude from this result that we don’t take these allegations as seriously as we should,” he said.

“This is very disappointing for the prosecution service. We prosecute tens of thousands of criminal charges a year. A very, very small number end up like this one did.”