Surrey man who pleaded guilty to sexual assault denied appointed lawyer for appeal

A 60-year-old man who pleaded guilty in Surrey provincial court to sexually assaulting his wife has been denied an appointed lawyer for an appeal of his conviction and sentence.

The man, identified only as Y.K., sought counsel after Legal Aid BC declined to fund a lawyer. He said he could not afford one and was unable to represent himself. In reasons released Sept. 8, Justice Joyce DeWitt-Van Oosten found the proposed appeal had no realistic prospect of success and that appointing counsel was not in the interests of justice.

Y.K. had sought to have his guilty plea declared invalid, saying his former lawyer had misinformed him about the Crown’s burden of proof. That application was dismissed. He also said he did not understand that a sexual-assault conviction would result in a criminal record.

He received a conditional sentence of two years less a day, including nine months of house arrest, followed by nine months of probation. Legal Aid BC rejected his request for a lawyer not for financial reasons, but partly because his effort to set aside the guilty plea had failed.

DeWitt-Van Oosten found no error in principle in the sentencing judge’s reasons and no meritorious basis to argue that the sentence was too long or demonstrably unfit given the aggravating circumstances. She noted that, without the joint submission, Y.K. could realistically have faced a more significant penalty, including penitentiary imprisonment.

The Crown argued that Y.K. did not meet the criteria for appointed counsel. The judge found he had not sufficiently shown that he was unable to pay for a lawyer. Although his financial means were limited, she said, he was not impecunious and was employed full time.