New trial ordered for man who may have been asleep during sexual offence

The Supreme Court in Grand Falls-Windsor has ordered a new trial for a young man because he may have been asleep when he committed sexual interference on a younger girl in 2011 .

The man had just turned 18 when he touched the girl in a sexual manner while they were in makeshift camp beds on a back deck.  

Neither can be identified because of a publication ban.

At trial in October 2013 the girl testified that, "I don't know if he was awake or not." 

However in ruling, the trial judge said, "...there is no evidence before this court...that the accused slept through this whole affair and episode," and convicted him. He was sentenced to five months in prison, and a term of probation.

The man appealed in 2014, and asked to be assessed by a forensic psychiatrist regarding the mental disorder of parasomnia.

In a 17-page report dated Jan. 26, 2016, Dr. Jasbir Gill said there is convincing clinical data to support that the man suffers from Sleep Arousal Disorder, which involves sleep related sexual behaviour or sexsomnia — similiar to sleepwalking.

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Summarizing part of Gill's report, the judge hearing the appeal, Justice Kendra Goulding, wrote: "Sexsomnia involves varying degrees of sexual activity including masturbation, fondling, groping, and sexual intercourse that arise from sleep and occur without conscious awareness. This condition is more common in males."

The current partner of the young man also provided the court with an affidavit describing various sexual acts on numerous occasions when he was apparently asleep.

Goulding ruled on June 30 that this "fresh evidence" could have affected the original verdict. She overturned the guilty verdict and ordered a new trial.