Man accused of sexual assault in Manitoba has charge stayed after years of RCMP, Crown delays

WINNIPEG -- A man accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl has had the charge against him stayed after a judge found inaction and miscommunication by the RCMP and Crown prosecutors led to seven years of delays.

Frank Graham was charged with sexual assault and arrested in Thompson, Man., in March 2011.

He was released on conditions including that he must live in Thompson. Though he showed up to court two times after that, Graham did not appear in court a third time and moved to Edmonton.

In an Aug. 5 decision in Manitoba's provincial court, Judge Stacy Cawley said that although RCMP and the Crown knew where Graham was in 2012 and 2014, he was not arrested until 2019.

When he was brought back to Manitoba, there was more than a year of delays before a trial date was set.

It would be 10 years and three months from the time Graham was arrested in 2011 to the time of his trial. Cawley said inaction by the Crown and the RCMP caused seven years of that delay.

"This is a serious sexual assault allegation involving a young complainant, but even the most serious charges cannot diminish the right to trial within a reasonable time," Cawley wrote in her decision.

"The severity of this charge is precisely why the Crown and the RCMP should have acted with reasonable diligence to arrest Graham when they had the chance."

In her decision, Cawley said Graham's right to be tried within a reasonable time was violated, and stayed the charge of sexual assault against him.

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