Crown appeals B.C. sexual-assault case tossed over ‘unreasonable’ delays

The outside of the courthouse in Duncan, B.C., is shown in this undated file photo. (Paul Doroshenko/Provincial Court of British Columbia)

Crown prosecutors in British Columbia have filed an appeal in a sexual-assault case that was tossed out over unreasonable delays last month.

The accused, who is only identified by his initials because of a publication ban, was charged with sexual assault causing bodily harm and assault involving two alleged victims after he was arrested in July 2023.

Provincial Court Judge Ted Gouge ruled in Duncan last month that the delays in the trial were beyond the 18-month “presumptive ceiling” set by the Supreme Court of Canada in provincial criminal prosecutions.

Gouge’s ruling says the “window” for the case to be tried in a reasonable time ended in late March, and the Crown did not blame any of the trial delays on the man’s defence lawyer.

An earlier ruling in the case dealt with disclosure of “several thousand text messages” exchanged by the two female complainants after the alleged assaults on June 30, 2023, and Gouge ordered them disclosed to the defence in January.

The Crown’s appeal filed in Vancouver on Tuesday says Gouge was wrong to find the delays were unreasonable and it’s seeking a new trial on the same charges.

The provincial court judge found that disclosure of the text messages he ordered “remained incomplete” in late January, and a lawyer for one of the complainants applied in B.C. Supreme Court in February to quash the order for the texts to be disclosed.

“Of interest to the defence, some of the text messages refer to the complainants’ alcohol consumption that evening, and its effect on their memory of the events,” Gouge’s January ruling says. “Others discuss what remedies the complainants might seek and their interactions with investigating police officers.”

The judge found that disclosure issues in the case unlikely to be “resolved” before the trial was to begin, and no investigating police officers gave “evidence to identify any unusual difficulties faced by them in their attempts to comply with the Crown’s disclosure obligations.”

The accused’s defence lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the appeal.

A lawyer for one of the complainants seeking to quash the disclosure order for the text messages declined to comment on the Crown’s appeal, and the other complainant’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the case.

This report by Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press, was first published May 7, 2025.