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The Crown has stayed a sexual assault charge against a seriously ill British sailor, but the trial of his co-accused continued Monday in Halifax.
Simon Radford and Darren Smalley were charged with sexual assault causing bodily harm and participating in a group sexual assault in barracks at 12 Wing Shearwater on April 10, 2015.
The trial had been delayed multiple times because Radford is in hospital with a serious infection. He returned to the United Kingdom for treatment following the last adjournment earlier this month.
His lawyer, David Bright, told Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Patrick Duncan that his client remains in a military hospital in England, and it's not know when he would be released.
"This is an extraordinary circumstance," said Duncan. "There are more obstacles than there are solutions."
After a brief recess, the Crown told Duncan it was staying the charge against Radford. Prosecutor Eric Taylor said it was in the public's interest to proceed with the charges against Smalley.
Taylor then called the trial's next witness: the best friend of the complainant.
The woman in her early 20s from Halifax said she had met a British sailor on the dating app Tinder and he invited her to a hockey game in Shearwater on April 9, 2015. She invited the complainant to go with her.
Smalley was participating in a naval hockey tournament in Halifax at the time of the alleged sexual assault.
The woman said they watched the game and afterwards went back to the barracks at the military base.
She said they went to room 1704, where there were four beds and several men hanging out, one of whom was Smalley. They started to drink beer.
The woman said she and the complainant had talked about how they would get home, and it was decided the complainant was going to have one beer and drive home eventually.
Her testimony was scheduled to resume after the lunch break Monday.
The complainant, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, is expected to testify at the judge-alone trial, and the Crown has said it will call roughly 12 witnesses.
Four men were originally accused in the alleged sexual assault, but charges against two of the sailors were dropped.
