Kevin Alexander Roberts was charged with sexual assault, sexual interference, sexual assault with a weapon, invitation to sexual touching, assault and assault causing bodily harm.
“Mr. Roberts denied all of the allegations,” Justice Elliott Myers said August 17, later adding that there was far too much intermixing of events and reconstruction.
“It is hard to believe,” Myers said. “The evidence as a whole supports reasonable doubt.”
After the court cleared, Roberts remained seated in the defendant’s box while the girl’s family cried and hugged outside the courtroom.
The alleged offences were committed in both Vancouver and Prince George.
Myers said the evidence did not meet the burden of proof overall needed for a conviction.
The court had heard that the girl, whose identity is shielded by the court, had been subjected to multiple assaults starting at age four.
The court heard Roberts had been in a relationship with the girl’s mother and lived with the mother, the child and her brother.
Myers said the girl alleged that Roberts had sexually assaulted her multiple times.
She said he had told her to keep it secret.
One time, she alleged in court, she had awakened to finding Roberts assaulting her. Other times, she alleged, he had her perform oral sex on him as he drove a car or later a truck for his employment.
In another instance, she testified she and another girl had performed oral sex on Roberts.
The second girl had testified she did not recall the situation, Myers said.
She first opened up slightly about the alleged abuse when her mother asked about scars on her wrist and asked if Roberts had abused her.
It was when her boyfriend encouraged her to call police that an investigation began.
She placed a call to Roberts when she was with police and began asking about particular events.
Myers said Roberts’ denials during that call were repeated and consistent.
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