Case Summary
In 1993, L. G. P. and his wife divorced after ten years of marriage. (They cannot be identified due to a court-ordered publication ban.) Their marriage “was punctuated by domestic violence,” and at one point he pled guilty to assaulting her.1 The two attempted to reconcile and live together again in 1994, but in March of that year, L. G. P.'s wife reported that he had sexually assaulted her. L. G. P. was arrested and charged with sexual assault.2
L. G. P. was tried before a judge without a jury in 1994. At trial, L. G. P.'s former wife testified that he had sexually assaulted her, while L.G.P. denied having done so, including denial of having sex on the night in question. The judge convicted L.G.P. and sentenced him to 20 months’ imprisonment.3
L. G. P. appealed his conviction but lost in the Alberta Court of Appeal. He was denied leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, and was deported from Canada in 1996 after having served his sentence.4
L. G. P. unlawfully returned to Canada six months later. In 1999, he began living with his former wife and their children in Calgary. L. G. P.'s former wife made two sworn declarations in that year, recanting her testimony that convicted L. G. P. of sexual assault, and stating that the sexual activity with respect to the 1994 charge was consensual.5 In 2000, however, she made another sworn statement to the police, withdrawing her recantations. The next day, L. G. P. was charged with assaulting and threatening her based on events that had allegedly occurred two months earlier in 2000.6 In early 2001, the two again reconciled and L. G. P.'s former wife refused to testify at the new trial.7
L. G. P. applied to the Minister of Justice to review his case and refer it back for a new appeal (in accordance with Section 696 of the Criminal Code). Minister of Justice Rob Nicholson referred the case back to the Alberta Court of Appeal, requesting that the court determine whether “the complainant’s recantations would be admissible as fresh evidence,” and to hear a new appeal of L. G. P.'s conviction if so.8
In January 2009, the Court of Appeal admitted the two recantations as fresh evidence. It quashed L. G. P.'s 1994 sexual assault conviction, but refused his request for an acquittal. The court ordered a new trial, in part because of concerns about coercion in the relationship, and in part because of the discrepancy between L. G. P.'s testimony that no sexual activity had occurred and his former wife’s recantation stating that there was consensual sexual activity.9 No public record has been discovered that a new trial was held on the 1994 sexual assault allegation.