OTTAWA, Ontario — A former high-ranking member of the Canadian navy was discovered not responsible by a choose Monday of sexual assault and committing an indecent act in a 33-year-old case involving a youthful, lower-ranking servicemember.
Former Vice Adm. Haydn Edmundson was head of the navy’s personnel in 2021 when he was accused of assaulting one other member of the navy throughout a 1991 deployment.
The complainant, Stephanie Viau, testified through the trial that started in February that she was 19 years outdated and had the navy’s lowest rank on the time of the alleged assault, whereas Edmundson was an older officer.
Edmundson pleaded not responsible and testified that he by no means had sexual contact with Viau.
In studying his choice within the Ontario Courtroom of Justice, Justice Matthew Webber stated prosecutors didn’t show their case past an inexpensive doubt. He cited issues with the Viau’s reminiscence of what occurred greater than 30 years in the past, and a scarcity of proof to corroborate her account.
“There are simply too many issues, and I’m not within the enterprise of … declaring what occurred,” Webber stated. “That’s not my job. My job is to only determine whether or not or not guilt has been confirmed to the requisite commonplace, and it hasn’t.”
A small group of Edmundson’s supporters gasped in court docket when the decision was learn. Edmundson shook his lawyer’s hand.
Outdoors court docket, protection lawyer Brian Greenspan stated his shopper was gratified by the “clear, decisive vindication of his steadfast place that he was not responsible of those false accusations.”
Throughout the trial, Viau testified that considered one of her duties on board the ship was to wake officers for evening watch and different in a single day duties, and that she woke Edmundson recurrently throughout that 1991 deployment.
The court docket has heard conflicting proof concerning the wake-up calls.
Viau estimated that she woke Edmundson each second or third evening, and he or she advised the court docket that his conduct turned progressively worse through the deployment.
She testified that he began sleeping bare and that one evening she discovered him fully uncovered on prime of the sheets. Viau stated she “went berserk,” yelling at him and turning on the lights to wake the opposite officer sleeping within the prime bunk.
That incident was the premise for the indecent act cost.
Viau alleged that the sexual assault occurred a few days after her yelling at Edmundson. When Edmundson took the stand in his personal protection, he denied having bodily or sexual contact with Viau.
Edmundson was considered one of a number of senior navy leaders accused of sexual misconduct in early 2021.
He stepped down from his place as head of navy personnel after the accusation in opposition to him was made public in 2021. The fees have been laid months later, in December 2021.
Edmundson testified that in February 2022, he was directed by the chief of the protection employees to retire from the Armed Forces.
