Emotions ran high both inside and outside the Barrie courthouse today after the sentencing hearing for Stephen Lemmond — a local restaurant manager convicted of sexually assaulting multiple victims, including minors — was delayed for a second time.
Several onlookers burst into tears in a Barrie courtroom Friday morning when they learned the case would not end as anticipated with a judge handing down a jail sentence to Lemmond, who had previously pleaded guilty to the sexual assault of six victims, which included four minors.
Lemmond, 49, was initially due to receive a sentence Aug. 8, but the proceedings went late and pushed his sentencing to Aug. 25. He is now scheduled to be sentenced on Wednesday, Sept. 6.
He was scheduled to be sentenced this morning relating to his sexual assault charges stemming from two years ago. After being brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair, the sentencing was eventually adjourned until Sept. 6, after Lemmond’s lawyer, Andrew Perrin, who attended the courtroom via video conference, informed the judge he had received a letter via email from one of the Crown attorney’s witnesses the previous evening.
After taking several minutes to consider the situation, the judge ultimately opted to adjourn the matter until early September in order for Lemmond to have the opportunity to view the letter and meet with his legal counsel.
“I am acutely aware that there are a number of people interested in this case and interested in seeing it to its conclusion … and note that the issue raised by Mr. Perrin potentially affects only one of the six matters before me and has no impact on the other five matters,” the judge said. “The sentencing … was focused on a global fit sentence. It is not possible, at this point, to disentangle one matter from the other five and proceed on with those.”
The judge said it was unfortunate that neither counsel was in the courtroom to address the issue further.
“The ability of counsel to meaningfully engage with their clients when they are not at the courthouse is severely limited,” the judge said. “The issue that has presented itself … raises the real possibility that Mr. Lemmond, at the conclusion of this matter, should it proceed today, would believe that his right to provide instructions to counsel to deal with new information was compromised by proceeding in the absence of a full, candid and private conversation with his counsel.”
Lemmond was arrested at his south-end workplace in June 2021 after victims came forward to police saying they had been sexually assaulted over time by Lemmond, who was their boss.
Following his arrest, more victims came forward saying they also been sexual assaulted while they were employed at two Subway shops in Barrie's south end between 2013 and 2021.
The Crown is asking for a sentence of at least eight years while Lemmond’s lawyer previously told the court that “five to seven years is a severe penitentiary sentence.”
