Sex charges dismissed against St. Catharines father

While conceding it’s possible that two sisters were sexually assaulted by their father a decade ago, a local judge said he had no choice but to dismiss all charges against the St. Catharines man.

“Quite possibly something untoward happened to ( the two sisters), but the Crown could not prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt,” Judge Joseph Henderson said Tuesday in Superior Court of Justice in St. Catharines.

At issue was the older sister’s claim that her father began molesting her when she was 10 and the abuse took place at least once a week for four years in the bed she shared with her younger sibling.

The younger sister testified she was not aware her father had sexually abused her sister in their bed.

If incidents occurred once a week for four years, the judge said that would mean the complainant was molested at least 200 times.

Henderson said it’s unlikely the younger sister would not have known something was going on if their father had entered their bed 200 times.

“There are unexplained inconsistencies that cast doubt on ( the older sister’s) testimony.”

He called the woman, now in her 20s, a “good witness and a bright young woman,” but added “unexplained inconsistencies cast some doubt on ( her) testimony.”

While the older sister testified she was molested multiple times, her younger sister told court she can recall a single incident when her father touched her when she was 10.

She said she forgot about the incident for a number of years and then a memory “came to her in a flash for no apparent reason.”

The name of the defendant, a father of four, cannot be published in order to protect the identity of the complainants. He had pleaded not guilty to six sexrelated offences.

The case came to the attention of Niagara police in early 2015 after one of the sisters attended a Toronto church service where a guest spoke to the congregation about being sexually abused.