shame on judge McArthur by Vancouver Rape Relief & Women’s Shelter’s February 26, 2025
Karen Severn:
disgusting both
Ontario judge suggests man, 52, was ‘flirting’ when he sent girl, 15, explicit porn videos, Last week, the Ontario Court of Appeal disagreed, calling Windsor Justice Michael McArthur’s line of reasoning “troubling.” by Jacques Gallant, Feb. 26, 2025, Toronto Star
According to a Windsor judge, a 52-year-old man may simply have been engaging in “flirtatious activity” when he sent pornographic videos to his friend’s 15-year-old daughter.
That’s what Superior Court Justice Michael McArthur reasoned in January 2023 when he acquitted the man of transmitting sexually explicit material to a child.
Last week, the Ontario Court of Appeal saw the man’s actions for what they really were: grooming. They took the rare step of replacing his acquittal with a conviction, while calling out McArthur for language that normalizes patterns of predatory behaviour.
“Some terms can have the unintended effect of characterizing an offender’s conduct as normal, or erotic or affectionate, instead of inherently criminal,” wrote Associate Chief Justice Michal Fairburn for a unanimous three-judge appeal panel. “Characterizing interactions between adults and children — in this case a 52-year-old man and a 15-year-old child — by mobilizing terms that are normal in an adult-adult context, is troubling because it could serve to normalize those terms in the context of adult-child relationships.”
The girl also reported the man groped her; McArthur acquitted him of sexual assault after finding he had a reasonable doubt as to whether the incident occurred. He further acquitted him of invitation to sexual touching after the girl reported the accused asked her for a blowjob.
OMG. I feel sick. Fucking douche fucker you are J McArthur. He must be punted off the bench! FFS. And, not allowed to practice law after he’s punted, the way the creeps at Alberta’s self regulator of lawyers licenced douche fucker (vile misogynist appointed to the bench by Steve Harper) Judge Robin Camp after he stepped down in disgrace
While “ill-advised and repugnant,” the request may have only been “jokingly” made, the judge found.What a disgusting asshole. I sure as hell would not allow my kids near him if he lived in my community or was in my family.
Those charges were not before the Court of Appeal because the Crown only appealed the acquittal on the sexually explicit material charge.
The man, whose identity is covered by a publication ban intended to protect the girl’s identity, was friends with her father; she would visit to help take care of his horse.
She reported that the man would say “sexually charged things to her” on the long car rides between her home and the man’s barn, and sent her “sexually charged” texts, including the messages: “I’d have my lips all over if you let me” and “I would love to nibble on that perfect ass.”
McArthur noted at trial that the messages “could be evidence to support an intention” by the accused to groom the girl, but could also be the accused “continuing to engage in flirtatious conduct.”
Fairburn found that McArthur’s judgement was “riddled” with references to flirting.
The accused also sent the girl videos of a man masturbating and of a man and woman having sex. He was charged with transmitting sexually explicit material to a child for the purpose of committing either sexual assault or exposing one’s genitals to a child.
McArthur acquitted him after finding he had a reasonable doubt as to whether it was the accused man in the videos. He also concluded that while inappropriate, the videos may have simply been “continued intentional flirtatious activity” by the man.This slimy judge needs to be punted and never allowed to practice law after his ass is tossed.
Wrong on both counts, the appeal court found. The Crown wasn’t required to prove that it was the accused man in the videos, only that he intended to facilitate either a sexual assault or indecent exposure at a later time — “facilitation that could be achieved through the breaking down of barriers with the child and the reducing of her inhibitions” by sending her the videos.
“Grooming can be achieved in different ways, including by engaging in sexual discourse with a child,” Fairburn wrote.
“From time to time, that sexual discourse may be framed as a ‘joke,’ which can serve to normalize the conduct in the child’s mind and permit the accused to try and safely test the waters to determine if the child is yet susceptible to the commission of the enumerated offence (sexual assault or indecent exposure.)
“This is anything but a joke.”Thank you, Appeal panel judges.
When looking at the evidence as a whole, the only reasonable inference “is that the conduct referred to by the trial judge as ‘flirting,’ whatever he meant by that term, is clear evidence of an intention to groom the child so as to make it more likely that the (accused) could do as he said he wanted to do: engage in sexual acts with her,” Fairburn wrote.
“While the trial judge may have seen this as conduct in line with the dictionary definition of (flirting), which includes a ‘playful sexual attraction,’ playful conduct and joking around are common tools in the arsenal of those grooming children.”
Given that they replaced his acquittal with a conviction, the Court of Appeal will now handle the man’s sentencing at a later date.
Jacques Gallant is a Toronto-based reporter covering courts, justice and legal affairs for the Star. Reach him by email at email hidden; JavaScript is required or follow him on Twitter: @JacquesGallant
Refer also to:
“It’s the judges!” enabling rape and murder of women. No kidding. In Canada too.
The list of Canadian rape-enabling judges and rapist lawyers goes on and on and on and on and on and on. I have many draft posts on the sordid creepy unjust matter, but do not have the stamina or heart left to finish them. It’s unbearable to endure watching these fuckers abuse kids and women, and get away with it, again and again and again and fucking again.
2013 Michael de Adder cartoon. Look at all those old white man Harpers