Our client was in his twenties and the complainant, a boy between nine and eleven years old, was a friend of the family. According to the boy, over a two year period, our client and the boy would sometimes play an adult-themed video game together. According to the boy, while they were playing, our client sometimes "blew a raspberry" on his stomach (in other words, put his mouth on his stomach and exhaled in order to make a noise) and sometimes passed his hand over his penis over-top his pants. The boy did not consider this to be sexual at the time, but reported our client to police later on when he discovered that our client had been charged in another case. Our client was charged with sexual assault, sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching, and making sexually explicit material available to a child.
This matter proceeded to a preliminary inquiry, in which defence counsel cross-examined the boy about his version of events and about his impressions and feelings at the time. At the end of the preliminary inquiry, the prosecution agreed that there was insufficient evidence to proceed on the charges of invitation to sexual touching and making sexually explicit material available to a child. Furthermore, after the preliminary inquiry, the prosecutors decided not to proceed with the remaining charges.
RESULT: Some of the charges were discharged and the remaining charges were withdrawn.