Nova Scotia sex offender appealing latest convictions involving children

A former Hants County man who was found guilty last spring on 18 historical sex-related charges involving five girls is appealing his convictions, as well as the 23-year prison sentence he received in November.

James Michael Snow, 63, filed a notice of appeal with the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal in December.

In his filing, Snow says provincial court Judge Chris Manning erred in refusing to split his charges into separate trials.

“This led to unavoidable bias,” Snow wrote.

He claims the judge erred by “injecting his own beliefs between facts” and in “the finding of facts without any supporting evidence.

He also alleges Manning erred on many occasions by using “speculative reasoning to inform his decisions” and by inferring facts “not in evidence.”

Snow listed more grounds for appeal on another page that was attached to the notice.

He says the judge did not give sufficient reasons for his findings of guilt and misapprehended “established requirements and guidelines” regarding the memories of children.

“The judge erred in his assessment of credibility for the complainants,” Snow said. “He neglected to take into account the distortions, recoding and unreliability of children’s memories over so many years.”

In addition, Snow claims the judge erred by allowing evidence alluding to an identical conviction years earlier, “which created bias,” and by using “ungrounded common sense and assumptions” to reach his conclusions.

Snow is asking the Appeal Court to quash the convictions and order a new trial in provincial court.

Although the filing indicates he is appealing his sentence as well, he did not mention it in his grounds.

Snow stood trial in Windsor and Kentville on a total of 41 charges. 

Manning delivered the verdict last May, convicting Snow on four counts each of sexual assault and sexual interference, three counts of invitation to sexual touching, two counts of gross indecency, and single counts of sexual exploitation, incest, attempting to overcome resistance by suffocation, committing an indecent act, and attempting to obtain sexual services for consideration from someone under the age of 18.

The offences were committed between 1984 and 1998, mainly in Walton, Hants County, where Snow lived at the time. One of the sexual assaults took place in Halifax in 1988.

The incest charge involved Snow’s eldest daughter, Mandy Wood, who did not want her identity protected. There’s a publication ban on the identities of the other victims.

The abuse ranged from exposure to attempted intercourse. The victims were between the ages of four and 17 when they were molested.

‘Alarming history’

At sentencing, Crown attorney Rob Kennedy said Snow came before the court with an “alarming history” of sexual offences against children.

In 1987, Snow was convicted of sexually assaulting a girl and received a sentence of seven months in jail. That offence happened in Walton as well.

In 2003, he was sentenced to four years in prison for sexually assaulting a girl in Walton. The sentence also included a lifetime prohibition on attending parks, playgrounds, pools, schools and other places where children under the age of 14 are likely to be present.

In November 2017, Snow was convicted of exposure after he was seen masturbating in front of a window at his Dartmouth apartment the previous February by children who were sledding. He was sentenced to time served and three years’ probation.

In June 2022, Snow was found guilty of exposing his genitals to a girl at the Walmart store in Truro in January 2021 and two counts of breaching his release conditions on other charges. A Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge accepted a joint recommendation from lawyers in August 2022 and sentenced Snow to 20 months in jail, deemed served by his time on remand.

“While the 1987 conviction is the only related prior conviction, his continued sexual offending since speaks to his low prospects of rehabilitation and elevated risk of reoffending,” Kennedy said in requesting a 25-year sentence for Snow.

The judge settled on a 23-year sentence. After remand credit, Snow was left with just over 20 years to serve.

Manning noted Snow denies the allegations and feels there’s nothing he needs to change.

“Mr. Snow, you have a long journey ahead of you,” the judge said. “I hope you come to grips with it and I hope you get whatever assistance you can obtain.

“I hope that one day you will accept responsibility. Your actions are despicable and disgraceful.”