SELECTED CASE LAW
PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND:
In 2018 PECA 29, Mr. M, a 20-year-old man, was convicted of sexual assault and appealed the conviction.
He argued the court had not properly assessed the credibility of the witnesses and had made a mistake in deciding that there was no evidence to support a finding of mistaken belief in con-sent.
A 16-year-old girl had attended a party where she drank alcohol and stayed the night at aa house near the party. One of the other people at the party took her to a bedroom where Mr. M was sleeping. She fell asleep intoxicated and woke up with Mr. M on top of her, after which he proceeded to have nonconsensual sex with her. Mr. M claimed that she had come into the room, started kissing him, removed her pants and consensual sexual activity occurred.
Two weeks later she sent Mr. M a message on Facebook saying that she hated him. Sometime later they communicated again through Facebook, and during that interaction, Mr. M made inculpatory statements about the assault.
The court of appeal found that the trial judge had properly assessed the credibility of the wit-nesses in finding that there was no consent.
Criminal Offence(s): Sexual Assault