A sexual assault trial stemming from an incident during the 2019 Victoria Day long weekend at a house party in Wasaga Beach has been put over until Jan. 13.
Reese Shephard, 24, faces a single count of sexual assault and has pleaded not guilty.
The judge-alone trial started on Monday and was expected to last just under a week but ran into unexpected delays starting Wednesday. Legal arguments dragged on through most of Wednesday, Thursday and into Friday morning.
The Crown was able to rest its case and it is expected that the defence will call its evidence — the accused will take the stand — when the trial resumes.
Factoring in the new delays and time expected for Justice Vanessa Christie to render her judgment, the case will have dragged on for almost six years.
The Crown’s case is that Shephard pretended to be someone else when he snuck into a bedroom of at a house party and sexually assaulted the alleged victim.
Shephard’s lawyer, Richard Allman, made it plain when cross-examining the complainant that his client maintains the sex was consensual.
A publication ban that prevents the identification of complainants in sexual assault cases is in effect. The accused was 18 at the time of the alleged incident, the complainant was 17.
