Sexual assault & sexual offences

Accused of a sexual offence in British Columbia?

An allegation alone can start dismantling a life — a career, a family, a reputation — long before any court looks at the evidence. If you have been charged, or the police want to talk to you about an allegation, the single most important decisions come in the first days. Here is what you are facing, and how a defence built for trial approaches it.

The stakes are different on these files

The Defence work on a sexual offence file starts from an honest premise: these are the most serious allegations in criminal law short of homicide, and the consequences reach past the sentence. A conviction can carry registration as a sex offender, restrictions on where you work and travel, and a record that follows you permanently. I do not minimize any of that. It is exactly why the file has to be prepared for trial from the first day, not positioned for a quick plea.

Most of these trials turn on credibility

In many sexual offence prosecutions there are two people in a room and no third witness. The case rises or falls on whose account the court accepts, and on whether the Crown’s evidence survives cross-examination. That means the details matter enormously: prior statements, messages before and after the alleged events, timelines, and the small inconsistencies that only show themselves when the disclosure is read line by line.

The law in this area is technical. There are strict rules about what evidence the defence may use and how it must be raised, and applications that have to be brought properly and early. This is not a file for a general practitioner. It is trial work.

What a built-for-trial defence looks like

I get the disclosure and take it apart. Every statement, every message, every gap. The theory of the defence is built from the record, not from wishful thinking. Where your Charter rights were breached — in how a statement was taken or how evidence was gathered — those breaches are litigated, and the remedy can be exclusion of the evidence.

Most people never hear the honest version of this: a defence the Crown believes will be tried changes how the file is assessed. Some allegations do not survive that scrutiny. Where the Crown’s case is weak, the pressure of a prepared trial defence is what exposes it.

What to do right now

1. Say nothing. Not to police, not to the complainant, not to mutual friends. You have the right to silence. Use it.
2. Do not contact the complainant. Directly or through anyone else. Contact can become a new charge and can breach release conditions.
3. Preserve everything. Messages, photos, emails, receipts — anything touching the relationship or the dates in question. Do not delete anything.
4. Write it down. Your memory of the relevant events, dated, while it is fresh. For your lawyer only.
5. Call. The first conversation is free and confidential.

Common questions