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Canada's Justice System is extremely criminal-friendly and, it seems, completely indifferent to victims of crime. B.C. leads the way in making it very difficult to prosecute a criminal. And on the rare occasion, a conviction is made, sentences are absurdly short, and only half of them have to be served.
Sex assault charge stayed for B.C. man after 3rd inconclusive trial
Crown says the evidence against Matthew Cartwright no longer meets
charge approval standards
Bethany Lindsay · CBC News ·
Posted: Nov 15, 2022 11:37 AM PT |
on the same sexual assault charge. (Peter Scobie/CBC)
Prosecutors have decided not to proceed with a fourth trial for a B.C. man accused of sexually assaulting a woman he'd just met, following yet another mistrial in the case.
Matthew Dwayne Cartwright has been found guilty of the sexual assault once before, but the decision was reversed on appeal, and two subsequent attempts to try the case have ended in mistrials.
The most recent was declared last week, when a B.C. Supreme Court judge halted proceedings, in part, she said, because a Crown prosecutor used "dangerous stereotypical reasoning" about sexual assault in her closing submissions to the jury.
Justice Catherine Murray wrote in her Nov. 10 judgment that "due to the volume and extent of Crown counsel's improper submissions, I am satisfied that trial fairness has been fatally compromised."
B.C. Prosecution Service spokesperson Dan McLaughlin told CBC in an email that following Murray's decision, Crown counsel has stayed the charge against Cartwright, concluding that the case no longer meets the province's charge approval standards.
Those standards, which are some of the toughest in the country, require that the evidence supports "a substantial likelihood of conviction" and, if so, that "the public interest requires a prosecution."
In most other provinces, as well as at the federal level, a lesser standard of a "reasonable" likelihood of conviction is necessary to approve charges.
Trials turned on the issue of consent
Previous court decisions show that Cartwright is accused of raping a woman on the morning of Nov. 13, 2016, on a couch in his apartment. The alleged victim's name is protected by a publication ban.
Cartwright had met the alleged victim's friend on a dating site and they'd all gone to a pub in Langley, B.C., the night before, according to court documents.
The night ended with Cartwright and the two women returning to his apartment and the alleged victim falling asleep on the couch while Cartwright and the alleged victim's friend went into the bedroom.
The alleged victim testified that she awoke in the morning to find Cartwright removing her clothes and then performing various unwanted sex acts on her while she was frozen in fear. Cartwright has maintained that she consented.
A jury found Cartwright guilty in 2018 in his first trial, and he was sentenced to 30 months behind bars.
But that decision was overturned in 2021 after a panel of appeal court justices found the original trial judge had failed to provide a substantive response to a question from the jury.
A second trial in April 2022 ended in a mistrial because of the Crown's improper cross-examination of Cartwright, according to Murray's decision.
In her decision to terminate the most recent trial, Murray laid out a list of prejudicial remarks prosecutor Wendy Dawson had made to the jury during her closing remarks.
The judge said the Crown lawyer had "repeatedly invited the jury to engage in forbidden reasoning to assess credibility, including that only romantic or loving sex is consensual, and that the complainant reacted just as one would expect a sexual assault victim to do and did everything one can expect from a victim following a sexual assault."
The judgment goes on to say that, "It has long been recognized that there is no 'usual' way victims of sexual assault behave during or after an assault. Nor are there 'usual' types of sexual assaults."
Murray wrote that while stereotypes about sex assault are often used against victims, in this case, they worked against the accused, unfairly influencing the jury to disbelieve Cartwright's evidence.
Also at issue were Dawson's repeated references to Cartwright's statement to police during her closing, even though the statement had not been led as part of the Crown's case, according to the judgment.
There were also problems with statements Dawson made about the alleged victim's credibility, Murray said.
So, prosecutors are not allowed to suggest that rapists might also be liars?
Paedo school mentor, 24, who sent 3,000 creepy messages to boy, 15,
in just three months ‘will NEVER apologise’
Ed Southgate
Published: 12:15, 17 Nov 2022; Updated: 16:42, 17 Nov 2022
A PAEDOPHILE school mentor who bombarded a teenage boy with thousands of sexual texts 'will never apologise', her fiancé says.
Mum-of-one Ellen Cadman-Smith, 24, sent the 15-year-old boy 3,000 messages in just two months, telling him: “I think I'm falling for you.”
Ellen Cadman-Smith, 24, sent a 15-year-old boy 3,000 messages in just two months. Credit: Supplied
The mum-of-one was a school mentor at the time she started a 'relationship' with the teen
In a series of 'overtly sexual' texts, she also told the teen that he “drove her insane”, that she was “thinking about him non-stop”, and that “I want you so badly”.
The school worker also admitted she was “half-naked” in extracts read to a jury, saying: “I can’t have you and you know why”, before arranging to meet him in her car.
But when confronted by The Sun yesterday at her home in Sandown, Isle of Wight, she refused to apologise.
When asked if she wanted to say sorry to her victim, she looked up at fiance Dean May before then going upstairs to her flat without saying anything.
Mr. May then shockingly told The Sun: “There will never be an apology.”
Cadman-Smith's behaviour was only uncovered when the victim's mother found messages from someone called 'E' on his phone, and alerted the police who tracked her down.
Cadman-Smith - who suffers from 'extreme anxiety' amongst other issues - was charged with engaging in sexual communication with a child.
But, now aged 24, she was deemed 'not mentally fit enough' to enter a plea or stand trial.
Instead, a rare 'trial of issue' case was held in her absence in which the jury was asked to decide whether or not she had done 'the act.'
After just three minutes of deliberation, a jury decided that she had.
However, the type of hearing means Cadman-Smith is not held to be criminally responsible for the offence.
Isle of Wight Crown Court heard that at the time of the offence, Cadman-Smith was a mentor at the Cowes Enterprise College responsible for supporting pupils with "behavioural, mental health and learning difficulties".
Previously known as Cowes High School, it is one of the island's top schools.
The court heard she and her victim developed a connection after she started supporting him. They began meeting in her car, but hid their "relationship" when they were in school.
Prosecuting, Mary Aspinall-Miles said she had been working at the school since 2017 and was a 'progress mentor'.
"[The boy] started accessing her services. They were covering up their behaviour at school... they thought they were in some kind of relationship.
"She told the boy she 'had feelings' for him but that she couldn't 'have him.'"
'FALLING FOR YOU'
The jury heard the mentor had texted the boy from her personal mobile and the pair initially shared "emotional and supportive messages". But Cadman-Smith began telling the boy she had been "thinking about him non-stop," the court was told.
In extracts from messages read to the jury, the mentor told the teenager: 'I can't have you and you know why,' later suggesting the pair could 'go for drives' together.
As their 'relationship' progressed, Cadman-Smith told the boy: "OMG, I'm falling for you and thinking about things I probably shouldn't [winking face emoji.]"
"I want you so badly... the things I could do to you right now are driving me insane," other text messages said.
Cadman-Smith - who had a boyfriend at the time of much of the messaging - told the school pupil she was "saving everything" for him, the court was told.
The jury heard the 15 year old and Cadman-Smith would regularly 'meet up in her' car and she would get him 'Burger King' or 'drinks.'
After Cadman-Smith, from Sandown, Isle of Wight, had walked into one of the boy's classes at school, she texted him to discuss the encounter and said: "When you gave me that look" and ended the message with a suggestive emoji.
When the mentor ended her relationship with her boyfriend she texted the boy to tell him, and suggested they spend a "night away in a hotel in Kent," the jury heard.
She told the boy in another message that because she was taking 'tablets for cyst on her ovaries,' the 'only safe place to do it would be in the shower.'
'HALF-NAKED WHILE MESSAGING'
In a separate text sent to the boy, she wrote 'I don't know what I did differently [last night] but I've got a bit of a sore throat today though,' the jury heard.
In further messages, Cadman-Smith told the boy she was 'half-naked while messaging' him, and that he was 'definitely a bum man', the court was told.
During the hearing no evidence was offered in her defence.
The jury found that Cadman-Smith did engage in sexual communication with a child and Judge Susan Evans KC imposed a five year sexual harm prevention order on her.
Under the terms of the order, she must make all her devices available for inspection, they must all have the ability to retain search history and she has been told she must not delete her search history.
She must also not use social media to contact a child under the age of 16 other than her immediate family members.
Cadman-Smith - who has a one-year-old child - will also be placed on the sex offenders register for five years as well as being barred from working with children.
She was also ordered to forfeit her mobile phone which will be destroyed.
The school mentor was handed an absolute discharge by the judge, who said: "It is clear that sexual activity did take place between them. She was in a position of responsibility... [It was] a breach of trust.
"She plainly knew it was wrong to do what she was doing. It was a huge error."
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