‘Please don’t interrupt,’ judge tells man accused in slew of sex offences
After making multiple attempts to postpone his trial, and just moments before the first witness was to be called, a man facing 11 sexual offence charges related to children decided to enter several guilty pleas.
A trial for Timothy Michael Lidkea had been scheduled to begin Monday morning, but after delays resulting from both confusion about support staff, and attempts by the accused to get the matter postponed, provincial court Judge Marilena Carminati ordered that the trial proceed.
“Please don’t interrupt,” the judge told the accused during one of his many interjections.
The 36-year-old, who is functionally deaf, addressed the court numerous times through American Sign Language interpreters, explaining that he wanted the case postponed for various reasons, including that he wanted to get a “second opinion” because he disagreed with his lawyer, that he was worried the court-employed interpreters weren’t qualified, and that he has medical conditions that make him too tired to be in court in the afternoon.
Carminati rejected his requests to adjourn, and told him the trial was starting and asked him if he wanted to either continue to be represented by his lawyer, Derek Anderson, or to represent himself.
“I don’t know,” Lidkea said. Anderson also asked for a brief adjournment, so he could determine if he could remain on the case, given his client’s comments.
At about 2:30 p.m., court heard the trial would proceed and that Anderson would stay.
However, just as Crown prosecutor Craig Krieger began, Lidkea had Anderson interrupt the proceedings to inform the court he had decided to plead guilty to some of the charges.
Court heard some brief details about each of the offences Lidkea was admitting to, which included sexual interference with a fiveyear-old girl, online luring of an undercover officer whom he believed was a 13-year-old girl, possession and distribution of child pornography, and communicating with people under the age of 18 for the purpose of facilitating child prostitution.
The offences all happened in 2014, and Lidkea was charged on Feb. 19, 2016.
Krieger had planned to call the little girl who had been abused as one of the first witnesses. Court heard that the now eight-year-old child had arrived at the courthouse and had been waiting to testify since 8:30 a.m.
The matter will be back in court Tuesday after Lidkea has an opportunity to review the allegations relating to one of the remaining charges he indicated he had planned to plead guilty to. The other charges were expected to be withdrawn.