B.C. judge finds delays in child sex assault case went beyond trial ‘ceiling’
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VICTORIA — A British Columbia judge says trial delays for a man accused of sexually assaulting a six-year-old girl went beyond a “ceiling” set by the Supreme Court of Canada as he stayed the case more than two years after charges were laid.
Provincial court Judge Mayland McKimm says in a decision released in May that the man was accused of sexually assaulting the child at his family home when she and her mother attended a “pre-Christmas festive meal” in December 2021.
The ruling says the child told her mother of the man’s “inappropriate behaviour” the next day, and the woman confronted him in his home with his wife present, secretly recording the interaction on her phone in an exchange that occurred “fluently” between Mandarin and Cantonese.
McKimm’s decision says the mother provided the recording and a “purported transcript” to police, and the man — only identified by his initials in the ruling — was charged in May 2022, but the Crown’s “failure” to assign a prosecutor to the case led to a three-month delay before the man’s trial could be set.
