Charges against a former CFB Borden soldier accused of trying to kill his baby were dropped Monday ahead of his trial scheduled for next month.
The former soldier was charged with attempted murder, failing to provide the necessities of life and three counts of aggravated assault in December 2018. He had been living on the base outside Angus with his family and had been training as a weapons technician at the time.
A jury trial had been scheduled to start on July 4 for the former soldier, who did not appear during Monday’s virtual hearing through Zoom.
His lawyer, Mary Cremer, told Superior Court Justice Jonathan Dawe that he had appeared at all the earlier court appearances and was undergoing treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“His No. 1 goal is to continue treatment and get himself employed on a full-time basis,” she said, adding that he has had no contact with the child since the day of his arrest and had no intentions of seeking custody.
But the prosecution announced it would not pursue the case.
“Given the exclusion of evidence stemming from the motions, the Crown has determined that there is no reasonable prospect of conviction of the charges,” Crown attorney Miriam Villamil-Pallister told the judge. “Therefore we’ve come to the very difficult decision to withdraw all the charges today.”
