Jailed Calgary therapist granted new trial

CALGARY Elderly marriage counsellor Johannes Kilian, who was ordered to serve a 31/2-year prison term for sexual contact with a client, has been granted a new trial.

Kilian, 79, appeared in Calgary Court of Queen’s Bench on Friday after the Alberta Court of Appeal earlier this week approved a Crown consent of his bid for a new trial.

Defence lawyer Alias Sanders, who represented Kilian on his appeal, told Justice Karen Horner her retainer to represent the accused has expired. Sanders asked the case be adjourned two weeks in order for Kilian to obtain a new lawyer.

On Monday, a Court of Appeal panel accepted a consent order signed by Crown and defence saying Kilian was entitled to a new trial because of problems with his first trial counsel, Dean Zuk.

“The conviction is quashed as the appellant received ineffective legal representation at trial which occasioned a miscarriage of justice,” the appeal order says.

“A new trial is ordered on the offence of sexual assault.”

Kilian had been granted a rare special commission hearing into his allegations he wasn’t properly represented by his first trial lawyer.

Among his allegations of incompetence of counsel was that he wasn’t informed he was not obliged to testify and the trial strategy pursued by his lawyer was doomed to fail.

The Crown’s decision to consent to the appeal came after a threeday special commission hearing in June before retired Court of Queen’s Bench Chief Justice Allen Sulatycky.

Kilian was convicted in April 2018 of sexually assaulting a client by abusing his position of power over her when the trial judge dismissed his claims of innocence.