OTTAWA – The Supreme Court of Canada has rejected the Crown’s appeal of a decision quashing sex offence convictions against a Nova Scotia man involving boys in the 1970s.
The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal originally threw out 17 sex offence convictions against Ernest Fenwick MacIntosh on the grounds that a 14-year delay between the original allegations and the trial was too long.
The Crown’s appeal was only being heard today, but the high court settled the matter quickly with a rare oral judgment.
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The allegations against MacIntosh, a former Cape Breton businessman, date back to the 1970s, but only surfaced in 1995 when he was working in India.
An extradition request was not made until 2006 and MacIntosh was returned to Canada in 2007.
He faced two trials on the charges.
MacIntosh was convicted of molesting four boys, although the charges filed against him in 1995 alleged he engaged in sex acts with six boys.
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Nova Scotia’s director of public prosecution says there is nothing more it can do except conduct a review of how the case was handled.
“There are challenges but we should be able to piece together a fairly accurate chart and timeline with respect to the involvement of the various public officials and dealing with the file,” said Martin Herschorn. “Obviously this delay in process in cases is very much a concern.”
The review is already underway and is expected to wrap up by the end of May.
– With files from Global News
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