Court rejects appeal in sex assault case

An Edmonton lawyer who was the victim of a childhood sexual assault is hopeful that a court’s unanimous rejection of his attacker’s appeal should give other victims the confidence to come forward.

The Court of Appeal of Alberta rejected Bitupu Mufuta’s appeal of his convictions for offences against then-grade 7 student Pierre Asselin in a unanimous decision Tuesday.

“If it’s true, it’s true,” Asselin said in an interview Tuesday. “You can tell your story even if it happened while you were alone in the dark.”

Asselin, now an Edmonton attorney who practices family law, sought to have an automatic publication ban on his identity removed so that he could speak publicly about the case.

He said he was impressed by the care and hard work that went into his case by police, prosecutors and others in the justice system.

“People should have confidence there are good people in the system who are there to help them,” he said.

In 2017, Mufuta was convicted of sexual interference and uttering a death threat for offences that took place when he tutored Asselin, then a junior high school student, in the early 1990s.

Mufuta was sentenced to 31/2 years incarceration by Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Jolaine Antonio, who also ordered he be placed on a sex offender registry for 20 years, submit a DNA sample to the national registry, and be subject to a five-year weapons prohibition.

Mufuta had been released on bail pending the outcome of his appeal.