R. v. Trowbridge

Decided: 2026-09-25. Docket: COA-24-CR-0082. Citation: 2026 ONCA 673 (CanLII). Criminal and statutory offences — Jury charge — Sexual assault — Vitiation of consent — Whether trial judge erred by refusing a Zhao instruction on vitiated consent — Constructive first degree murder predicated on sexual assault and unlawful act — Consent to strangulation and bodily harm left as binary non-consent issue — Error found — Acquittal set aside | Criminal and statutory offences — Appeals — New trial — Remedy — Whether failure to instruct on vitiated consent had a material bearing on acquittal — Crown onus on appeal from acquittal, Graveline and Hodgson — Jury may have acquitted based on reasonable doubt on non-consent — New trial limited to lesser included offence — New trial on manslaughter ordered |