A Dartmouth, Nova Scotia man who admitted he put holes in his girlfriend’s condoms in an attempt to get her pregnant didn’t sexually assault her, a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge ruled Thursday.
Craig Jaret Hutchinson, 38, had been charged with aggravated sexual assault in the case. Justice Gerald Moir acquitted him Thursday, ruling Hutchinson, who sabotaged the condoms after his girlfriend began suggesting she wanted to break up, didn’t expose her to a “significant risk” of physical harm.
“The evidence suggests Mr. Hutchinson did something that was not only fraudulent, it was dastardly – but it does not prove sexual assault,” Moir said.
“Whether it proves some other crime, I don’t know.”
Hutchinson smiled, but didn’t comment to reporters. His ex-girlfriend wasn’t in court when the verdict was read.
The couple dated for nine months in 2006, and broke up in November.
Hutchinson’s girlfriend testified she began discussing a breakup the summer of 2006, but Hutchinson wanted to save the relationship.
The couple continued to use condoms, as they had throughout their relationship, but Hutchinson started to insist his girlfriend take pregnancy tests. In early September, she found out she was pregnant.
After the two broke up, Hutchinson sent a series of text messages to his ex, telling her to throw out the condoms she kept in her bedside table.
“I poked holes in all of them. I wanted a baby with you so bad, I sabotaged them,” read one of the messages.
She had an abortion at the nine-week mark.
Defence lawyer Patrick MacEwan successfully argued that it couldn’t be proved the couple used any of the sabotaged condoms. The woman agreed to sleep with Hutchinson, and could have gotten pregnant during one of the times they didn’t use a condom, he said.
Crown attorney Jennifer MacLellan had argued piercing the condoms negated the woman’s consent.
