Former N.S. school principal acquitted in historical sexual assault case

A former Halifax-area elementary school principal has been acquitted in a historical sexual assault case.

Judge Alanna Murphy announced her decision in the matter of Steve Hutchins in a provincial courtroom in Dartmouth, N.S. on Tuesday. 

Hutchins, 60, was found not guilty in relation to one count each of sexual assault and sexual interference for offences alleged to have occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

"I cannot be satisfied to the degree that I need to be to make a finding of guilt and consequently it would be dangerous for me to make findings of guilt in relation to the two counts before the court," Murphy told the court. 

A woman, now 43, alleged Hutchins assaulted her when she was attending grades 3 to 6 at elementary schools in the Eastern Passage area where Hutchins was a gym teacher.

A trial was held over three days in March. 

The woman, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, testified Hutchins would hold her in tight embraces in supply rooms adjacent to the gyms in the schools, or sometimes in Hutchins's office.

Hutchins denied all of the complainant's allegations while under questioning by his lawyer, Don Murray.

During his testimony, Hutchins used photographs and hand-drawn floor plans to demonstrate the layout of the schools to suggest the sort of encounters the woman described would not have been possible.

"I cannot say that the complainant's evidence was so persuasive and compelling that it rendered Mr. Hutchins's evidence unbelievable," Murphy said while delivering her decision. 

"I can say that at the very least his evidence has left me with reasonable doubt," she said.

Murray declined a request from CBC News for a comment from his client. 

Acquitted in separate case 

Hutchins was also acquitted in a different historical sexual assault case last fall. 

In a separate incident, a woman accused him of giving her an open-mouthed kiss and touching her body at a social function at a home in Hammonds Plains when she was 14.

The woman said she did not go to police until stories surfaced about charges laid against Hutchins involving another woman.

The judge in that case said while she found the complainant's testimony to be credible, she was left with some doubt and so had to acquit Hutchins.