What Are The Potential Defences For Sexual Assault?

What Are The Potential Defences For Sexual Assault?

• Factual Innocence:If the Crown is unable to prove the essential elements of the particular offence beyond a reasonable doubt, they will have failed to discharge their burden, and the accused will be acquitted.
• Honest but Mistaken Belief in Consent: If the accused honestly believed the complainant was consenting, he would not have formed the requisite intent to be guilty of the offence. However, it is not a defence if the mistaken belief arose from:
  • The accused's self-induced intoxication;
  • The accused's recklessness or wilful blindness;
  • The accused did not take reasonable steps, in the circumstances know to him at the time, to ascertain that the complainant was consenting; or
  • There is evidence that the complainant's voluntary agreement was affirmatively expressed by words or actively expressed by conduct.