One week after being sentenced to prison for sexual assault, 38-year-old Ryan Hartman has launched another appeal.
Hartman is the man behind the sexsomnia defence, claiming that he was sleeping when he attacked Rebekah D’Aoust at a house party in 2011. A publication ban on D’Aoust’s name was lifted earlier this month at her request.
Hartman has been convicted twice now and has appealed twice, and subsequently launching a Jordan application under Section 11(b) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, saying his trial took too long. Last Wednesday Brockville Ontario Court Justice Kimberley Moore sentenced him to 12 months in jail, with three years’ probation.
Now Hartman has hired a Toronto lawyer, Chris Sewrattan, to appeal that sentence. Sewrattan will argue that the Judge was wrong to toss out the Jordan application and wrong to dismiss the sexsomnia defence. Hartman has a bail hearing scheduled for April 1st. His victim Rebekah D’Aoust says she is devastated by the turn of events.
“There has to be a lawyer out there that wants to help me fight back,” she tweeted @bekahdaoust. She told CTV news that she feels sickened by this. “I’m barely getting by,” she said.
The notice of appeal states that “the trial judge erred in dismissing the 11(b) application by, among other things, not recognizing a lower presumptive ceiling for re-trials and that the trial judge erred in not granting credit for time on bail. Hartman is asking that his conviction be quashed or a his appeal be allowed and new trial be ordered.
