A BC Supreme Court judge has dismissed a mother’s appeal aimed at allowing her spouse, who is charged with sexual assault, to have supervised access to their teenagers in the family home.
The appellant, identified in McDonald’s verdict as M.P.S., and spouse, identified as S.M., are parents of 14- and 16-year-old children.
S.M. was arrested in April 2024 and charged with sexual offences against two female minors. At the time, M.P.S. agreed to safety plans with the director of child, family and community services, which prohibited S.M. from being in the family home. But she later appealed that provincial August 2024 court ruling.
In a Friday, Feb. 7 verdict in Prince George, Justice Elizabeth McDonald said the judge who heard the application “chose to accept the (director's) proposal as the appropriate one and in my view, he was entitled to do so.”
“During the director’s investigation, there was no disclosure by the children of abuse by S.M.,” McDonald said. “On July 21, 2024, the director filed an amended report to court seeking an interim supervision order that the children remain with M.P.S. under terms and conditions.”
The mother wanted a new arrangement, court heard.
“The appellant’s proposal was that S.M. be permitted to reside in a separate suite in the family home and that he have access to the children in the family home during specified hours seven days per week, provided that the appellant is directly supervised,” McDonald said. “Notwithstanding the appellant’s proposal, the interim order was made on the terms and conditions sought by the director.”
McDonald, who heard the appeal on Feb. 3 in Prince George, decided that the original decision was sound.
“I do not agree that the reasons clearly show that the application judge erred in law, acted on some wrong principle, or is otherwise clearly wrong,” McDonald concluded. “Accordingly, I am not satisfied that the application judge erred in law.”
