Grandfather’s sex assault conviction overturned

Girl confesses grandmother told her to lie

I HAVE HAD TO LIVE WITH BEING DESPISED BY (MY FAMILY).

FREDERICTON • A man shunned by his community and reviled by family when he was wrongly branded a sex offender has been acquitted of sexually assaulting his step-granddaughter after the girl admitted she was forced to make up the story by her grandmother.

The man, who is referred to only as D.A.M. in court documents, outlined the devastating toll the wrongful conviction has had on his life since the little girl falsely accused him of touching her sexually when she was 12.

“Not only was I convicted and incarcerated for something I did not do, but I have had to live with being despised by members of my family and the community,” he said in a document presented in the New Brunswick Court of Appeal. “My son’s former spouse has kept and continues to keep their three children away from me because his ex-wife now believes that I am a sex offender.”

The statements were revealed in court on Jan. 20 after the Appeal Court judge overturned his 2011 conviction, acquitted him and removed all related restrictions imposed when he was sentenced to four months in prison. Those included an order to be registered in the sex offender registry.

The man was charged with sexual interference after the girl alleged that he touched her vagina inside her pants. He denied the accusations.

The case took a dramatic turn when the man appealed and indicated he had new evidence to present to the court, including four affidavits. In one, the complainant described how her parents had separated and her paternal grandmother told her repeatedly that the man had sexually abused her, although she knew he hadn’t.

“My (paternal grandmother) pressured me so much that I felt I had no other choice but to go to court and tell the story,” she said in her affidavit. “All I wanted was to please my grandmother and I was very confused.”