A Sault Ste. Marie man who stood trial for sexual assault three years ago has pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for offering a bribe to one of the alleged victims to not testify against him in a previous court case.
After a one-week trial held in March 2021 before Justice Edward Gareau, the six charges against the man, now 46, were dismissed.
Those charges included two counts of sexual assault against two different victims each under the age of 16, two counts of sexual interference, one count of invitation to sexual touching and one count of assault.
The names of the alleged victims in that case or any details that could identify them are protected by a publication ban. The defendant is not being named because doing so may identify the alleged victims.
Last Wednesday, years after the charges against him were dismissed, the defendant was again in a Sault Ste. Marie courtroom for two current charges: one for obstruction of justice and a second for failing to appear for fingerprints.
On March 2, 2021, while the defendant's previous matter was still before the courts, Sault Police were alerted to an investigation by the Crown Attorney's office that the man had been sending text messages to one of the alleged victims, who he had been ordered by the court to have no contact with as part of his bail conditions.
Within those text messages was an offer to pay the victim $100 to not show up at trial, an action for which the obstruction of justice charge was filed.
Kevin Ludgate from the Crown Attorney's office in Sudbury told the court by video that the alleged victim did end up testifying in the March 2021 trial.
Standing before Justice Michael Varpio on Wednesday, the defendant pleaded guilty to the obstruct justice charge 38 months after it was laid. With that admission, the Crown agreed to drop the failure to appear charge.
Before accepting the plea, Varpio ensured the defendant understood if he were to go to trial he could potentially be found not guilty or have the charges otherwise dropped, to which the accused responded he did understand.
The defendant was arrested at the courthouse on March 2, 2021 without incident and Ludgate said the man has spent the past 38 months without additional incidents when speaking about the joint submission for sentencing.
He was given a conditional sentence of two years less a day, with the first 12 months to be completed under house arrest, followed by three years of probation. He is also under a restriction to not be in communication with the person he texted, without their prior written consent.
Varpio said the defendant showed remorse by entering the guilty plea, sparing the witness from testifying and that the joint submission for sentencing was reasonable under the circumstances.
When Varpio asked the man if he would follow the many conditions that accompanied his sentence, the defendant said he would, noting he would rather not be standing before the justice again.
"I hope to never see you again because it means you kept out of trouble," replied Varpio.