Charges dismissed against Halifax-area teacher accused of sexual assault

CBC

6 June 2024 at 0:35 pm·1-min read

Matthew Douglas Moriarty is shown leaving a courtroom in Dartmouth, N.S., on Thursday, June 6, 2024. (Richard Cuthbertson/CBC - image credit)

Charges against a Halifax-area teacher accused of sexually assaulting a youth three years ago at a high school have been dismissed, after he agreed to a peace bond that forbids him from contacting the complainant.

Matthew Douglas Moriarty, 42, appeared briefly Thursday in provincial court in Dartmouth, N.S., on charges of sexual assault and sexual exploitation.

Following the court hearing, both the defence and Crown lawyers declined to explain in detail why the case will not head to trial.

"I would say it's a form of vindication for my client," defence lawyer Ron Pizzo said outside the courtroom. "Everyone gets to move on with their life, there's no criminal record. These cases are very devastating."

Moriarty still faces voyeurism charges related to allegations he secretly observed and recorded five women and girls in a washroom last year at the Abenaki Aquatic Club in Dartmouth. He is scheduled for trial on those charges in July.

Moriarty, a language teacher at Woodlawn High School, was placed on leave last summer when the charges were announced by Halifax Regional Police.

Cheryl Schurman, the prosecutor in the Moriarty case, said in an interview the Crown has an ethical duty to determine whether there is a realistic prospect of conviction, and is obliged not to proceed with the case if it doesn't meet that burden.

She said the decision in the Moriarty case that there was no realistic prospect of conviction was not taken "lightly."

Moriarty's peace bond lasts for 12 months. During that time, he is forbidden from contacting the complainant, except through a lawyer, and must at least 50 metres away from their home, school and workplace.

MORE TOP STORIES

The Bolton News
What happened to the Soham murderer Ian Huntley and where is he now?
The Soham murders rocked the nation in 2002 when school girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman went missing.
The Bolton News
What happened to Maxine Carr? The ex-girlfriend of Soham murderer Ian Huntley
Maxine Carr is the former girlfriend of Soham murderer Ian Huntley and was convicted in 2003.
The Independent
Family assaulted and tortured with hot butter knives and forks by gang who demanded their money and guns
The victims were duct taped by a group of five or six unidentified suspects
News Shopper
‘Hero’ London firefighter raped and abused his own kids in ‘house of horrors’
A brother and sister who helped jail their dad Brian Doye decades after he raped and sexually abused them have spoken out.
AFP
As ice melts, Everest's 'death zone' gives up its ghosts
On Everest's sacred slopes, climate change is thinning snow and ice, increasingly exposing the bodies of hundreds of mountaineers who died chasing their dream to summit the world's highest mountain.Sherpa said that bringing one body down from close to Lhotse's 8,516 metre peak -- the world's fourth-highest mountain -- had been among the hardest challenges so far.
OK! Magazine
TV star detective's grim 6-word view on Jay Slater case as 'armchair sleuths complicate hunt' for missing teen
Former Met detective and Hunted star Peter Bleksley delivered his verdict on the case - and criticised people with 'zero experience' weighing in on the case...
Evening Standard
Woman attacked by stranger who dragged her into garden in north London ambush
A manhunt has been launched after police found the partially clothed woman
The Independent
Two men arrested after police discovered that three women and a teen were held captive in a shipping container
Two of the females were sexually assaulted and one of the suspects had used ‘multiple weapons’ to threaten the victims, police say
The Argus
Paedophile raped and sexually abused two young girls
A "sickeninging and depraved" paedophile man who raped and sexually assaulted two young girls has been jailed.
The Independent
Wife accused of spiking husband’s Mountain Dew with weed killer because he wasn’t grateful for birthday party
Peters allegedly told investigators that she and her husband were having relationship issues — and she should have “just divorced him”
Yahoo News UK
Former British detective investigating missing Jay Slater ‘wants to speak to two key people’
TV investigator Mark Williams-Thomas, best known for working on Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, has flown to Tenerife to help find Jay Slater.
The Independent
A glimmer of hope for Jay Slater’s family - an Irish tourist who was found after vanishing in Tenerife
Ryan Cooney’s story offers hope to Jay Slater’s family that he could be found alive on the island
The Independent
Driver arrested as police at scene of car crash find dead body in the back of her car
DJ Liara Tsai was found with a cut to her neck and wrapped in blankets and bed sheets. The driver of the car is being held on a $1m bond – but is said to be refusing to speak after taking a ‘spiritual vow of silence’
Evening Standard
Just Stop Oil: Six people arrested at east London soup night ahead of 'summer flight disruption'
Six people suspected of being Just Stop Oil organisers have been arrested at a soup night in east London. The arrests were made after reports that the group planned to disrupt airports and “thousands of holidaymakers this summer”, the force said. Some of those in custody are believed to be “key organisers” for Just Stop Oil, police said.The climate activists last week breached security at Stansted Airport to spray orange paint on private jets.Singer Taylor Swift’s private jet had been there hours before the incident but was not affected.A source told The Times that the airport attack was only a “prelude” to action coming before autumn, adding: “This is just another way of us taking action in the theatres of life we exist in because we’re not politicians.”JSO denied individual holidaymakers were being targeted, but failed to rule out action at airports this summer.
The Packet - Falmouth
Woman tells of moment she discovered 'naked lady' on church steps
Two men are on trial over an alleged sexual assault on the steps of St Michael’s Church in Helston.
PA Media: UK News
Postponing the sentencing of child abuse ring ‘can’t go on indefinitely’ – judge
Judge Lord Beckett commissioned risk assessments after the convictions in November but only one has been completed.
The Independent
6-year-old girl dies after being left in a hot car while her mom’s boyfriend went to work
Deputies say the girl’s core body temperature was 107.2 degrees when she was treated by paramedics
Evening Standard
OPINION - Keir Starmer crossed a big line when he called Rishi Sunak a liar — he shouldn't have done it
Now, the issue here isn’t the truthfulness or accuracy of Rishi Sunak’s claims about Labour’s tax plans: I quite accept that those claims are, to put it mildly, debatable. There were a hundred circumlocutions you could use: if Sir Keir had spluttered, “that’s not true!” it would have meant exactly the same thing, but would have been entirely unproblematic. Once, scrupulous people would use the word “untruth” in denying the veracity of a statement and this too would lack the terrible force of the word “lie”, which implies a deliberate intention to deceive.
Manchester Evening News
Daniel Gee had no idea when he walked into shop for a butty that police were coming
The former Everton gangster has been on the run since late May after escaping from an open prison
Sky News
Paramedic found dead along with woman had appeared in Channel 4 series 999: On The Frontline
A paramedic found dead along with a woman at a house in Staffordshire had appeared in the Channel 4 show 999: On The Frontline. Police have opened a murder investigation after the bodies of Daniel Duffield, 24, and Lauren Evans, 22, were discovered in a property in Hednesford, Cannock, at around 12.30pm on Tuesday afternoon. Mr Duffield worked for West Midlands Ambulance Service and featured in an episode of 999: On The Frontline which was broadcast in March.

Latest stories