Shaking her head in disbelief at yet another delay in the Richard Lowes sex assault case, a judge had sharp words for the Crown prosecutors.
“This is getting nuts,” said Justice Robinson inside a St. Catharines courtroom on Friday morning. “This is a sexual assault case. This is a very serious matter.”
Lowes, owner of the Country Corner Market in Fonthill, was charged more than 36 months ago with three counts of sexual assault and one count of sexual interference with a person under the age of 16. His case had already been deferred 46 separate times before finding its way back to the special Justice-led Intensive Case Management Court (JICMC) on April 19. JICMC is specifically designed to get long-delayed prosecutions moving again, which didn’t happen with the Lowes case, much to the annoyance of the judge presiding over JICMC on Friday.
“What the heck is going on here?” said Justice Robinson as she tried to get the source of the latest delay. According to the Crown, the original prosecutor has been stuck in a lengthy homicide trial, so the case was scheduled to be taken over by another Crown attorney, however, the incoming prosecutor has not yet made contact with the victim(s) to get final approval to move forward with a resolution.
The judge asked what resolution in principle is on the table, and Lowes’ attorney said there is a proposal to have him plead guilty to lesser offences.
Lowes, wearing a yellow leather jacket and brown pants, did not react to the proceedings.
The case was put over to May 8.
