Bail hearing adjourned for former Kentville tennis coach facing sex charges

A 27-year-old former Kentville man facing trial on sex crime charges, who was arrested after illegally crossing the border to the United States, has agreed to have a bail hearing adjourned for two weeks.

Aaron Byron Cumberland was in Kentville provincial court Aug. 14, but the matter was adjourned at the request of his lawyer.

Jonathan Cuming said he is still working out details of a release plan he wishes to propose to the court and some witnesses were not available Aug. 14.

Crown attorney Sylvia Domaradzki was not opposed to the adjournment.

She is applying to have Cumberland’s current bail revoked and said she will oppose any new bail for the former tennis instructor.

Cumberland was on release conditions to stay in Nova Scotia when he was apprehended by U.S. authorities on May 31 in Houlton, on the American side of the Maine-New Brunswick border. He pleaded guilty to illegally entering the United States.

Cumberland was charged last November with five crimes in- volving three children in the Annapolis Valley.

He is scheduled for trial in Kentville in October on one count of internet luring and has another trial set in Windsor in December on another luring charge.

He will also be in Windsor in December for a preliminary inquiry on charges of internet luring, invitation to sexual touching and making sexually explicit material available to a child.

All the allegations are dated between March of 2016 and November 2017. Police say they laid the charges after someone approached them with information in November.

Two of the complainants were under the age of 18, while the third was under 16.

Cumberland was released on bail last year on conditions that included surrendering his passport and not using or having electronic devices that can access the internet. The U.S. court documents allege that Cumberland had a laptop and cellphone with him when he was arrested in Maine.