Supreme Court to hear appeal of ex-soldier convicted of sexual assault, voyeurism

The Supreme Court of Canada has signalled it will hear the appeal of a former Canadian soldier who was sentenced to three years in prison for sexually touching an unconscious female colleague and secretly recording another while she used the washroom.

Former corporal Colin McGregor was convicted by court martial in the military justice system. He is appealing the legality of the search of his home in Arlington, Va., conducted in 2017.

At the time, he was serving as a resource management support clerk with Canadian defence liaison staff in Washington, D.C.

According to the court martial record, the offences occurred between Jan. 1, 2011 and Jan. 30, 2017, in Victoria, B.C. and Alexandria, Va.

McGregor was charged in May 2017 and repatriated to the 5th Canadian Division Support Base Gagetown in Oromocto, N.B. He retired from the military four months later and relocated to Alberta.

He was found guilty of sexual assault, two counts of voyeurism, one count of possession of a device for surreptitious interception of private communication, and disgraceful conduct.

The two victims were Canadian military members working in Esquimalt and Washington at the time of the incidents, officials have said.

His lawyers argue McGregor essentially had diplomatic status while serving in Washington and that his home should have been protected from search and seizure.

However, the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service worked with local police and obtained an American search warrant to search McGregor's residence.

There, investigators found a video of an alleged sexual assault in Esquimalt in 2011. They also seized a number of computers, hard drives, computer equipment and other media storage devices.

McGregor, who was charged in May 2017, retired from the military four months after being returned to Canada.

No date has been set for the Supreme Court hearing.