A Humber Valley man charged with sex offences, in addition to unrelated charges stemming from a standoff with police, has elected to be tried in the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador.
The Western Star is not identifying the man because of a court-ordered publication ban that prohibits the reporting of information that could identify a victim in the case.
The man, who is in his 30's, was not in provincial court when his matters were called Tuesday. His lawyer, Robby Ash, made the election for his client to be tried by judge alone in the Supreme Court should he be committed to stand trial.
Ash asked for a preliminary inquiry to determine if the man should be committed to stand trial. A date for that will be set Friday when the matter is called again.
The election to the Supreme Court was in relation to eight of the 10 charges against the man. They include four counts of sexual assault, two counts of assault and two counts of mischief by damaging property and are being prosecuted by indictment by the Crown.
All of those offences are alleged to have involved the same woman victim at different times throughout 2018.
The remaining two charges against the man include uttering threats to kill and unlawful storage of a firearm in relation to a seven-hour standoff in early March of this year. The target of the threat was not the woman, but the threat is alleged to have been uttered to her.
The Crown is proceeding by summary conviction on the two charges related to the stand-off and Ash said he needed to have further discussions with the Crown and his client before deciding how to proceed with those.
