AIDWYC Exonerations: Individual Cases

Jack White

Jack White, an employee at an Ontario mental health care facility, was charged with sexual assault in 1993 after a co-worker alleged he had witnessed Mr. White assault a facility patient four years earlier. The alleged victim was unable to speak.Mr. White's accuser had ample motive to lie, but at trial Mr. White's lawyer failed to question the veracity of his allegations.

Mr. White was convicted in 1995 following a trial that lasted fewer than two hours. A more appropriately extensive hearing of the evidence, before a provincial labour tribunal, later yielded a finding that the accuser was not credible; however, this finding did not impact upon Mr. White's conviction until it was employed as fresh evidence on appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, in 2009.

Mr. White's appeal was vacated on remand to the Ontario Court of Appeal June 30, 2010, and charges were formally withdrawn in the Superior Court of Ontario on November 26, 2010.