Yellowknife man who skipped out on first trial acquitted of sexual assault at 2nd trial

Yellowknife Courthouse (CKLB File photo).

A Yellowknife man, who failed to show for day two of his original trial has been found not guilty of sexual assault.

35-year-old Alden Lennie was acquitted in Supreme Court in Yellowknife last Friday.

He was charged in 2017 about two years after a woman complained to RCMP that she’d been sexually assaulted in a Yellowknife apartment by Lennie.

It’s never come out in court why it took police so long to charge Lennie.

He testified in his own defence that the sex was consensual, while his alleged victim testified that it happened while she was sleeping and that she did not give consent.

The judge ruled that there was not enough evidence presented at trial to indicate Lennie was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

He remains in custody however after he was charged with failing to appear in court.

That charge is expected to be dealt with later this month.

That charge was laid after Lennie was a no-show for his sex assault trial earlier this year – the day after a jury had been selected.

That led to a mistrial and his second trial was before a judge alone – with no jury.

About the Author

John McFadden
John has been in the broadcast journalism industry since the 1980s. He has been a reporter in Yellowknife since 2012 and joined CKLB in January of 2018. John covers the crime and court beat as well as reporting on other areas including politics, business, entertainment and sports. He won seven national community newspaper awards while he was a journalist with Northern News Services Limited (NNSL). John worked in Ontario before coming North including stints as a TV sportscaster in Peterborough and senior news writer for CBC and CTV in downtown Toronto.