Man acquitted of N.S. sex assault because court couldn’t identify suspect

CITYnews halifax \ By The Canadian Press

A judge has acquitted a Halifax man charged in a 2018 sexual assault after concluding the accused couldn’t be clearly identified as one of two rapists.

Provincial court Judge Jill Hartlen said today she accepted evidence that Carrie Low was sexually assaulted by two men at a residence on the outskirts of Halifax on the night of May 18, 2018.

However, Hartlen says the brief flashbacks that Low provided to the court from that night didn’t prove that Brent Alexander Julien was among her attackers, adding that there was no DNA evidence implicating the accused.

The judge concluded that a third man seen in video footage from inside the bar where Low was socializing that night wore clothing that more closely fit the victim’s description of one of her attackers.

Low sought and received a court order permitting the use of her name, and she has alleged that police mishandled key evidence in her case by not visiting the scene soon after the sexual assault.

In 2021, Halifax police charged Alexander Thomas of East Preston, N.S., but before his trial began Thomas was found dead in what police said was a homicide.