A Halifax man accused of raping four women will go to trial in Nova Scotia Supreme Court 16 months from now on one of the allegations.
Matthew Albert Percy, 35, faces a charge of sexual assault causing bodily harm from an encounter with a young woman in her room at Dalhousie University on Dec. 6, 2014.
Police investigated the incident at the time but closed the file in January 2015 without laying a charge. The case was reopened last January, after Percy was charged with sexually assaulting two Saint Mary’s University students.
Percy was charged in February and was supposed to stand trial in Halifax provincial court earlier this month, but he re-elected to be tried in Supreme Court by a judge alone.
The Crown then filed a preferred indictment to send the matter directly to trial without a preliminary inquiry.
Percy appeared in Supreme Court in Halifax on Thursday by video link from the Northeast Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Priestville, Pictou County.
Justice Timothy Gabriel booked the trial for 10 days beginning Feb. 18, 2020. Justice Josh Arnold is scheduled to preside over the hearing.
Percy, a former groundskeeper at SMU, was acquitted in provincial court in August on charges of sexual assault, choking and voyeurism, from an incident with a student at his apartment Sept. 3, 2017.
The Crown filed a notice of appeal in September, claiming the trial judge erred in ruling that the prosecution failed to prove the woman had not consented to sex.
Percy is awaiting a verdict at his second trial in provincial court, on charges of sexual assault and voyeurism from a Sept. 15, 2017, encounter with a SMU student in her dormitory room. Judge Elizabeth Buckle heard closing arguments Oct. 12 and is expected to give her decision in December.
Percy has also elected to be tried by a Supreme Court judge on a fourth set of charges - sexual assault causing bodily harm, choking and assault. The charges were laid in August after police received a complaint in June that a woman had been sexually assaulted in Halifax in November 2013.
A preliminary inquiry into those charges will be held in provincial court in January.
There are publication bans on the identities of the four complainants.
