Newfoundland cop convicted of sexual assault appeals to Canadian Supreme Court
ST. JOHN’S, NL — A Newfoundland police officer found guilty of raping a woman in her living room while on duty has appealed his conviction in the nation’s highest court.
The website of the Supreme Court of Canada states that Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officer Carl Douglas Snelgrove filed an application on June 19 to have his appeal heard.
The filing comes two months after a panel of judges at the Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal unanimously rejected his lawyer’s arguments that the judge who sentenced him had erred.
Snelgrove was convicted on May 15, 2021 of sexually assaulting a woman after driving her home from downtown St. John’s, NL, in his flagged police car.
The woman was forced to recount the assault at three separate trials following an acquittal in 2017 and a successful appeal, and a mistrial in 2020.
The case has gripped St. John’s since the first trial in 2017, and attorney Lynn Moore credits the prosecution for opening “a can of worms” that prompted other women to bring charges against at least one other police officer in the city to bring forward.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on June 28, 2023.
