Ontario’s highest court has taken the rare step of convicting a retired Chatham violin teacher of sexual assault for touching his young students’ breasts, finding the trial judge erred in law by acquitting him.“The trial judge erred in law by determining that the respondent’s lack of sexual purpose was determinative of the sexual assault and indecent assault charges,” the Appellate Court ruled Tuesday.“In short, he confused the sexual purpose of the respondent with the sexual nature of the conduct.”The three-judge panel said the evidence established that the sexual assault charges were proved beyond a reasonable doubt and, “but for the error of the trial judge, there would have been convictions.”Although the Court of Appeal has jurisdiction and discretion to enter findings of guilt, it rarely does so. The court sent the matter back to the Superior Court — but to a different judge — for sentencing.The court, however, upheld Trachy’s acquittals on sexual exploitation and sexual interference charges. Sexual purpose is a required element of those offences, but not for sexual or indecent assault.A year ago, Superior Court Justice Thomas Carey found Claude Trachy not guilty of several sexual offences, including indecent assault, sexual assault and sexual interference, for incidents involving twenty-one complainants who were his pupils decades ago.Carey believed Trachy’s evidence that he measured female students’ breast area not for a “sexual purpose” but to help them play better by being properly fitted for shoulder rests on their violins or violas.Evidence in the trial in the southwestern Ontario city centred on Trachy’s practice of measuring the breast area of some of his preteen and teenage female students, above and below their clothes. In some instances, he took moulds of their shoulders and chest areas.Trachy’s practice of measuring the breast area didn ...
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