Identity of N.L. lawyer in sexual assault case revealed as top court won’t hear anonymity bid
The curtain has been lifted on the id of Newfoundland lawyer Robert Common, after the Supreme Court docket of Canada declined Thursday to listen to an enchantment that may permit him to proceed shielding his title from publication.
Till now, Common, 70, has been recognized on court docket dockets in Newfoundland and Labrador solely by the initials R.R.
He’s dealing with 4 counts of sexual assault and one among sexual interference, involving the identical alleged sufferer. She was 12 on the time of the primary alleged assault twenty years in the past.
Three of the costs had been laid towards Common in June 2021. The opposite two costs had been filed in January.
Final yr, Common was granted an interim ban in Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court docket, to dam his title from being revealed in relation to these felony proceedings.
CBC Information and CTV Information intervened, arguing the ban would intrude with the open-court precept and freedom of the press.
N.L. decide cautioned about ‘sea change’ in felony legislation
In March, Justice James Adams sided with the media organizations.
Adams dominated that granting the publication ban would run counter to the open-court precept and would change the legislation throughout Canada.
“If a publication ban had been to be issued on this case, then nearly anybody charged with a felony offence might declare the identical safety,” the decide wrote in his determination.
“This is able to represent a sea change within the felony legislation. The suitable authority to make such a change is Parliament, not the court docket.”
Adams discovered that Common’s presumption of innocence shouldn’t be in danger if no publication ban is granted.
“In defending the applicant’s status by issuing a ban on his id, the court docket could be critically impacting the general public curiosity in encouraging individuals with related details about comparable allegations from coming ahead,” Adams wrote in his determination.
“It will additionally negatively influence the general public’s curiosity in seeing that every one people charged with felony offences are handled pretty and equally.”
The decide lifted the ban on Common’s title, however stayed that call pending Common’s bid to have the Supreme Court docket of Canada hear the matter.
Common is being represented by well-known St. John’s attorneys Rosellen Sullivan and Jerome Kennedy, in addition to Scott Hutchison of the high-profile Toronto legislation agency Henein Hutchison LLP.
They argued that releasing Common’s id risked his presumption of innocence, privateness, and the status of different professionals in his discipline.
The attorneys contended that publication of his title would trigger lasting injury to Common, even when he’s discovered not responsible.
“The mixed impact of an web that by no means forgets and social media’s current capability to amplify irrelevant, inaccurate, or outdated data can’t be overstated,” they wrote within the utility to the court docket.
Common has labored in legislation for greater than three many years as a lawyer on Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula.
The Regulation Society of Newfoundland and Labrador has sanctioned him 5 occasions because the early Nineties for an array of misconduct referring to the occupation — none of which was felony in nature.
Common had agreed that the ban may very well be lifted if he’s finally convicted.
Victims of sexual assault are robotically protected by a publication ban on their id due to the character of the crime.
The accused, nevertheless, shouldn’t be protected by such a ban, except one is required to hide the id of the sufferer.
Common has elected trial by decide and jury. A seven-day trial is scheduled to start at Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court docket on Could 29, 2023.
