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Client acquitted of sexual assault and sexual interference after a three day trial in the Superior Court of Justice, Belleville. The client was charged after having met the complainant through an internet chat site. The complainant had mislead D.M. about her real age. Police were called by the parents of the complainant when she failed to return home after a walk. When the police found the complainant in the company of D.M., the police conducted an investigation into the complainant’s activities with D.M. and as a result charges were laid. Defence lawyers Joseph Neuberger and Stacey Nichols worked carefully through three detailed statements by the complainant, volumes of text message and internet chat logs, and a large volume of disclosure including forensic and crime scene pictures, videos and reports. The defence brought several motions at trial to exclude various pieces of the prosecution’s evidence, including a re-enactment video, and the evidence of three witnesses who were called to provide age recognition evidence. In addition Defence lawyer Joseph Neuberger assailed photographs taken of the complainant several hours after the meeting with D.M. which were tendered by the Crown to establish that given the complainant’s youthful appearance, D.M. failed to take all reasonable steps to ascertain the true age of the complainant pursuant to section 150.1(4) of the Criminal Code of Canada. Joseph Neuberger and Stacey Nichols successfully argued that the police had failed to protect the continuity of the complainant’s appearance sufficiently, resulting in pictures that were not representative of the complainant’s appearance earlier in the evening when she met with D.M. The defence further argued that given the content of the text and internet chats, as well as the evidence of the complainant, there was ample evidence to support a defence of honest but mistaken belief of age, wherein D.M. had indeed taken all reasonable steps. There were unusual and unique facts that the defence was able to present to successfully challenge the prosecution’s case and as a result D.M. was found not guilty of both charges.