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UPDATE: Not guilty in Kelowna sexual assault trial

Court documents indicate Shea Gardecki was found not guilty in a sexual assault trial
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Shea Gardecki. Image: Facebook

UPDATED: 8 p.m.

A Peachland man facing two charges of sexual assault and one charge of break and enter with intent to commit an indictable offence was found not guilty this weekend.

Shea Gardecki was accused of entering a home on Highland Drive North on Aug. 23, 2016 and sexually touching two women who were sleeping inside.

Crown counsel Patricia O’Neil said Wednesday that evidence clearly points to Gardecki as the man who perpetrated the crime, despite a lack of forensic evidence such as bodily fluid or fingerprints being left at the scene.

“Not every crime scene is capable of offering that kind of evidence,” she said.

The house where the touching is alleged to have happened was a busy place where lots of young people spent time. When police went to the scene they noted that people were walking in and out of the house, picking things up and behaving as was to be expected given the act that they believe happened.

What’s more important, she said, is that Gardecki matched the description of the perpetrator and had the opportunity to do the act, given that he was absent from the nearby home of a friend with which he was visiting during the time in question.

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