With one trial set to resume in March, dates for a second trial for a Northern Peninsula man charged with sexual assault were set for the fall in the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador in Corner Brook on Monday.
The 65-year-old man, who cannot be named due to a publication ban, was not present when the charges against him were called.
Justice George Murphy said the matter was called at the request of the court to have the trial dates on the latest charges changed.
Murphy is presiding over the man’s ongoing trial and had been scheduled to hear the second one in April.
Murphy said he felt it would be better for another justice to hear the second trial as it seems evident that the first trial is going to involve significant issues with credibility and he was not comfortable with hearing the second trial.
The charges against the man were sworn before the provincial court on April 12, 2018 and allege that the man touched a person under the age of 16 for a sexual purpose and that he sexually assaulted the same person. The incidents are alleged to have occurred between June 29, 2014 and Jan. 14, 2015.
The trial on those charges was set for Oct. 21-24. A pretrial conference will be held on March 4.
The man’s other trial on charges that he sexually assaulted three of his granddaughters on different occasions over a period of time from January 2007 to September 2016 is scheduled to resume on March 19 for three days. Those charges were sworn before the court in January 2017.
