Delays derail romance fraud case

Stayed after going four years without trial

OTTAWA • An Ottawa judge has thrown out a romance fraud case that has taken more than four years to go to trial, ruling that the excessive delay has robbed the accused man of his right to a fair trial.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Kevin Phillips on Friday stayed the case against Kevin Bishop of Ottawa, who had been facing one charge of fraud over $5,000.

The case represents the latest fallout from a Supreme Court of Canada ruling that established new rules for an accused person’s right to be tried within a reasonable time. It also falls on the heels of an Ottawa judge staying a first-degree murder case just last month.

A weeklong jury trial for Kevin Bishop had been scheduled to start Friday morning, but in ruling on a pre-trial motion, Phillips said the Crown had failed in its duty to deliver timely justice. Bishop’s fraud case had been bouncing around the court system since September 2012.

The judge said the Crown failed to keep in touch with the complainant, Julie MacArthur, who had moved to Central America as the case dragged on for years.

Denouncing the justice system’s “culture of complacency” toward delay, the country’s high court said in July that Superior Court cases must be concluded within 30 months from the time a charge is laid. Delays that stretch beyond that are “presumptively unreasonable,” the court said, and violate an accused person’s charter right to be tried within a reasonable time.

“I understand that the judicial system is throwing out cases to make a point, but I say shame on all of them,” said MacArthur, who was flown to Ottawa from her current home in Central America to testify at the trial.

Two other women were also scheduled to testify and provide similar evidence in the case based on their own unhappy experiences with Bishop, an Ottawa contractor who met women through the dating website Plenty of Fish.

MacArthur launched the case as a private prosecution because she had been unable to get Ottawa police to lay charges against him. The Crown attorney’s office later reviewed the file and carried it forward.

“If there is one more victim, I am planting the blame and responsibility squarely on the shoulder of the Ontario justice system and the Ottawa police force,” MacArthur said.

In 2011, MacArthur won a $100,000 civil judgment against Bishop for the financial losses she suffered during her romantic and business relationship with him.

MacArthur met Bishop through Plenty of Fish in 2009. Early in their relationship, when Bishop told her his contracting business was in financial difficulty, she loaned him $20,000. They later decided to renovate and flip a house together. MacArthur paid for the house while Bishop was supposed to do the renovation work.

But MacArthur hemorrhaged money during the renovation and Bishop pocketed cash that was supposed to go to suppliers. The renovations were never finished, and the relationship broke down for good when MacArthur discovered that Bishop had been using her credit card.