Crown to Ask Supreme Court of Canada to Hear MacIntosh Appeal

The Nova Scotia Public Prosecution Service will ask the Supreme Court of Canada to hear its appeal in the Ernest Fenwick MacIntosh case.

After a lengthy police investigation and extradition from India in 2007, Mr. MacIntosh was convicted of 17 counts of indecent assault and gross indecency involving four boys in two separate trials in 2010 and 2011. The charges date back to the 1970s in the Port Hawkesbury area. Mr. MacIntosh was sentenced to five- and-a-half years in prison, minus credit for time served on remand.

Mr. MacIntosh appealed the convictions and in December, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal found that his right to be tried within a reasonable period of time was infringed and stayed all charges. The court also found that the trial judge had erred in law and misapprehended evidence material to the convictions, meaning he came to conclusions about the evidence that were wrong.

"After a careful legal analysis of the Court of Appeal's decision, we believe we have legal grounds involving issues of public importance which warrant consideration by the Supreme Court of Canada," said Martin Herschorn, director of Public Prosecutions.

The application will be filed with the Supreme Court of Canada by Feb. 6.