A local man convicted three times of sexual assault has lost an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada of his most recent conviction.
Michael Christopher Delmas had argued that his trial judge in Medicine Hat had relied on “stereotypical reasoning” regarding a previous sexual relationship he had with a woman who accused Delmas of forcing himself on her four years ago.
Canada’s top court dismissed the appeal by a 6-1 count on Dec. 2.
Delmas was sentenced to serve 78 months in prison for the sexual assault, which occurred in Medicine Hat in April 2015. Having been incarcerated since that time, and considering time already served, he was released two months after the July 2019 sentencing.
At trial, court heard that Delmas was high on methamphetamine during the incident while he and a woman were watching TV at her home.
The woman said that after rejecting his sexual advances, Delmas pinned her down and attempted to penetrate her but could not maintain an erection and, after a time, masturbated instead.
Delmas said they both had ingested meth and he considered the sexual activity was consensual. He had a different girlfriend at the time, and said that he and the complainant had had sex twice previously.
At that time Crown prosecutors objected to the defence cross-examination that delved into the past relationship, citing precedents that past sexual consent and past sexual history did not equate to ongoing consent.
Delmas’s legal representatives argued before the Alberta Court of Appeal in October 2019 that trial judge Gordon Krinke put too much weight on that precedent regarding consent and therefore, discounted Delmas’s account.
They stated the judge should have held a separate hearing within the same trial to examine evidence regarding the past relationship.
This month, six of seven Supreme Court justices dismissed the appeal, with Justice Moldaver writing the majority opinion that Krinke did not err to a significant extent and his action to decline a void dire hearing “gave rise to no substantial wrong of miscarriage of justice.”
Dissenting opinion came from Justice Cote, who agreed with the opinion of Alberta Appeal Court Justice O’Farrell.
The conviction was Delmas’s third for sexual assault in 12 years.
Local Crown prosecutors had originally sought to hold a dangerous offenders hearing, with the potential for an indeterminate sentence.
That protracted process ended when the Alberta Solicitor General’s office declined to provide official support for the hearing.
Delmas was released in September 2019, at which time the Calgary Police Service issued a public warning that he would be living in that community and would be monitored as a high risk to reoffend.
