British Columbia – Court of Appeal – The Court had granted permission to Mr Henry to reopen his appeal against conviction for offences of sexual assault. His case was to be that Mr X, who had already been convicted of other assaults, had instead been the perpetrator of the assaults for which he, Mr Henry, had been convicted.
Held: The court prohibited public identification of Mr X until determination of the appeal. Newbury JA observed that the public interest in the openness of trials and in the administration of justice was not diminished by withholding his identification and she concluded as follows: ‘If our society takes seriously the proposition that a person in Mr X’s position is presumed innocent until proven guilty, it seems to me that the deleterious effects, both on his privacy interests and on the administration of justice, of the publication of his name do outweigh the public interest in knowing that fact.’
Judges:
Newbury JA
Citations:
2009 BCCA 86 (CanLII)
Links:
Jurisdiction:
Canada
Cited by:
Cited – PNM v Times Newspapers Ltd and Others SC 19-Jul-2017
No anonymity for investigation suspect
The claimant had been investigated on an allegation of historic sexual abuse. He had never been charged, but the investigation had continued with others being convicted in a high profile case. He appealed from refusal of orders restricting . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Criminal Practice, Media
Updated: 09 May 2022; Ref: scu.590537