Court clears Halifax man of canoe-kayak club voyeurism charges

A Nova Scotia judge has found a Halifax man not guilty of voyeurism charges stemming from allegations he filmed several women without their consent in a public washroom in Dartmouth.

Provincial court Judge Jill Hartlen told a Dartmouth courtroom Monday that she had too many concerns about the evidence presented against Matthew Douglas Moriarty.

Hartlen said that among her concerns, she would have had to believe Moriarty was a “criminal mastermind,” capable of deleting all forensic evidence from his phone, in order to convict him.

Moriarty was accused of recording women last year at a canoe-kayak club by slipping a phone into a pair of mesh shorts and leaving the garment on the bathroom floor near the divider between stalls.

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He was also charged last year with sexual assault in relation to a 2021 incident at a school involving someone who was under 18.

A spokesperson from the provincial public prosecutions service says the sexual-assault charge was dismissed in June after a 12-month peace bond was ordered.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 26, 2024.