An unusual end to a trial in a Chatham-Kent court today when a sentencing hearing abruptly came to an end because the accused had died.
79-year-old Gerald Lucier of Grande Pointe had been found guilty of three charges related to sexual offences when the complainant was a child.
Defence lawyer Mark Michael Mackew says the court had bring the trial to a close.
"The finding of guilty remains, but the proceedings are stayed because there is no further judicial involvement," he says. "The judge has to end his role somehow so the way to do that in this instance was to state the accused person was found guilty the finding of guilt remains on the record."
MacKew says it is the first time he has ever been involved in a case that ended this way, but with complaints that go back decades the age of the accused is sometimes a factor.
