{"id":30005,"date":"2026-06-16T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nrlawyers.com\/6ixDev-v2\/?post_type=success_story&p=30005"},"modified":"2026-07-08T13:49:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T13:49:06","slug":"rex-v-p-m-2026-30005","status":"publish","type":"success_story","link":"https:\/\/nrlawyers.com\/6ixDev-v2\/success-story\/rex-v-p-m-2026-30005\/","title":{"rendered":"Rex v. P.M. (2026)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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P.M. found not guilty following a trial on a charge of Sexual Assault in the Ontario Court of Justice, Kitchener.\u00a0\u00a0 P.M. and V.A. were involved in a brief boyfriend girlfriend relationship.\u00a0 During the relationship, the complainant started demonstrating several behaviours which caused P.M. serious concerns about any future together with the complainant.\u00a0 On one occasion, while at P.M.\u2019s home with other family members in close proximity, P.M. and V.A. had an intimate interaction in the basement.\u00a0 P.M. was not sexually experienced.\u00a0 V.A. was sexually aggressive towards P.M. and initiated activity which P.M. was uncomfortable engaging in, especially with other family members nearby.\u00a0 \u00a0P.M. was afraid to end the relationship because of V.A.\u2019s erratic behaviour.\u00a0 Ultimately, V.A. decided to breakup with P.M. by publicly announcing that she had decided she was a lesbian which was not true. \u00a0\u00a0This caused significant hardship for P.M. at the school they both attended and he was bullied by other students as a result.\u00a0 P.M. decided to date another mutual friend and ended contact with V.A.\u00a0 V.A. found out and was angry at him, even though they had broken up.\u00a0 As a result, she decided to contact the police and have sexual assault charges laid against P.M.\u00a0 \u00a0P.M. retained Michael Bury of Neuberger & Partners LLP, Criminal Lawyers Toronto, to defend him.\u00a0 P.M. decided to take the matter to trial.\u00a0 Reliability and credibility were the central issues at trial.\u00a0 The complainant was cross-examined at length by Michael Bury regarding the events leading up to and including the allegations.\u00a0 While the trial judge found V.A. to be credible overall, her lack of recall on very important details following the cross-examination did ultimately raise both credibility and reliability concerns which the court could not ignore.\u00a0 Applying the relevant legal principles, the trial judge found P.M. Not Guilty as the Crown had not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","success_category":[118,119],"class_list":["post-30005","success_story","type-success_story","status-publish","hentry","success_category-all-success-stories","success_category-sexual-assault-domestic-assault-and-other-violent-crimes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nrlawyers.com\/6ixDev-v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/success_story\/30005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nrlawyers.com\/6ixDev-v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/success_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nrlawyers.com\/6ixDev-v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/success_story"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nrlawyers.com\/6ixDev-v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"success_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nrlawyers.com\/6ixDev-v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/success_category?post=30005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}