Sex-assault accused remains in custody
Harry Charles Sadd, accused of sexual assaults on boys between 1970 and 1987, made a brief court appearance by video on Friday.
Although Victoria provincial court Judge Adrian Brooks agreed in October to release Sadd on $25,000 bail with one or more sureties, Sadd remains at the Vancouver Island Regional Correctional Centre.
A surety is a person who comes to court and promises to supervise an accused person while they are out on bail. A surety also pledges an amount of money to the court by signing a type of bond called a recognizance.
“He remains in custody until his bail’s been ‘perfected,’ ” defence lawyer Chris Considine said of Sadd.
Asked about Sadd’s time in custody, Considine made a general comment, saying: “Obviously, being inside a prison environment is not a pleasant experience for anybody.”
Sadd, in his early 70s, is due to return to B.C. Supreme Court on Feb. 21, appearing before Justice Brian MacKenzie.
Considine said the case will proceed by direct indictment. That means there will be no preliminary hearing, a proceeding usually held to determine whether there is enough evidence to warrant a trial.
“It’s a process — especially you see it in historical type of allegations — to speed up the trial process rather than go through a preliminary inquiry and then a trial itself,” he said.
Direct indictment is not common in normal criminal procedure, he said, and has to be approved by a senior official in the Ministry of Attorney General.
Sadd was charged in August 2016 on a count of sexually assaulting a teenage boy in the 1970s.
In June 2017, he was arrested on 23 new charges involving 12 complainants who were from nine to 15 when the alleged incidents took place. Among the 2017 charges are eight counts of sexual assault and six counts of indecent assault on a male person.
Sadd has also been charged with breaching a no-contact order with a complainant and failing to comply with bail conditions by attending a public park, schoolyard, daycare centre, playground or other location where people under 18 could be present.