The trial of a former tennis instructor on sex-related charges ground to a halt Tuesday afternoon after a procedural issue popped up in Kentville Supreme Court.
The complainant in the case against 28-year Aaron Byron Cumberland was set to take the stand after the lunch break, but it was an hour after the scheduled resumption of the proceedings before the jury was brought back into the courtroom.
“I was called into the courtroom this afternoon before you were to deal with a new issue,” Justice Gregory Warner told the nine-woman, four-man jury. “I would love to have been able to give an instant answer; it’s extremely unique problem that I’ve never heard of before.”
He said that rather than “potentially have these whole proceedings go aside by making an instant decision, I just told counsel that I need to think about it and possibly consult ... in order to decide this procedural question before we go on.”
Cumberland is charged with internet luring, invitation to sexual touching, and making sexually explicit material available to a child under the age of 16. The charges all involve the same teenage boy, who was a former student of Cumberland.
“I hate more than anyone when a trial is delayed,” Warner said. “I don’t think I could give my decision in the next 10 to 15 minutes ... for that reason, I’m going to send you home for the afternoon and try to decide this issue properly, or as properly as I potentially can so that I don’t derail the trial one way or another ...”
Since the issue and discussions took place without the jury present, the details can’t be reported.
The judge said he hopes to have his decision by 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The complainant’s father testified Tuesday morning, corroborating the boy’s mother’s testimony. She said in her evidence that she had her tablet synced to her son’s Facebook account and could see conversations he was having with someone one night in 2017.
She said the incoming messages were disappearing after 30 seconds, and were identified as coming from an account labelled Aaron Hiro Cumberland.
She said the messages included a photo of a naked man with an erect penis, and another of a naked female.
She said she went to her son’s bedroom and asked about the conversation, then had his father come in and her son leave. They started using another phone to record the incoming messages on video before they disappeared, and answered the messages as if they were their son.
The mother testified that the person on the other side of the conversation asked such things as “do you want to see me do stuff,” and “well are you interested in seeing my body?”
The messages also asked for a picture of the boy’s penis, and if the boy wanted to see the other person’s the next day and “would you like to do stuff with it in real life,” the woman testified.
Cumberland is being held in custody. His bail was revoked last year after he was arrested by American authorities for illegally crossing the United States border into Maine, violating his release condition to remain in Nova Scotia.
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