Regan Acquittal Not to be Appealed

The Public Prosecution Service will not appeal the Dec. 18 acquittal of Gerald Regan on charges of rape, attempted rape, indecent assault and forcible confinement. However, another charge of indecent assault will proceed, as will an appeal of Justice Michael MacDonald's decision to stay nine other charges against Mr. Regan.

The standard the Crown must meet to successfully appeal a jury acquittal is high. In this case, there was a ruling that the evidence of six similar-fact witnesses was inadmissible. The trial judge did not hear the evidence of five of these witnesses. The Crown would have to convince the Court of Appeal of two factors: that the evidence of the five witnesses would have been ruled admissible if heard, and that the evidence would have affected the jury's verdict. The Crown felt it would have been difficult to meet the test on appeal on both these factors. In such circumstances, the duty of the Crown is to not proceed with an appeal.

In addition, not all the complainants in the 1998 trial wished to proceed with a new trial. The views of victims are key considerations for the Crown in deciding whether to proceed with a prosecution.

A date for a trial on the indecent assault charge will be set Feb. 19. The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal will hear the appeal involving the stayed charges May 27 and 28.