Historic sex charges dropped against Nunavut carver

Nunavut’s Crown office stayed 26 historic sex charges against Billy Merkosak Oct. 26, which effectively means the charges, dating back to 1978, have been dropped for now. (FILE PHOTO)

Nunavut’s Crown prosecution office has stayed 26 historical sex-crime charges against Pond Inlet carver Billy Merkosak.

“We no longer believe there’s a reasonable prospect of conviction,” prosecutor Jay Potter told Justice Robert Kilpatrick via teleconference at the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit Oct. 26.

Merkosak, 49, who was not present in the courtroom, had been charged with 26 sex crimes from nine complainants that are alleged to have occurred in Pond Inlet between 1978 and 1984 — when Merkosak was a youth, between 12 and 18 years old.

A stay of charges means they are effectively dropped for now.

Potter said a number of factors contributed to the Crown’s decision, including the death of one complainant, the serious illness of another, and new evidence that “corroborates the defence’s case.”

Merkosak had been scheduled to stand trial on those charges in Pond Inlet starting Nov. 2.

The defendant still faces three unrelated and more recent charges:

• two counts of sexual assault alleged by two separate complainants in Pond Inlet between 2011 and 2012; and

• one count of assault stemming from an incident alleged to have occurred in the same community in 2012.

Potter told Nunatsiaq News that the two sexual assault charges are “very similar in nature,” and that the assault charge is an alleged incident of spousal abuse.

A court order protects the identities of the complainants involved in those two sex assault charges.

Merkosak is expected to enter pleas on the three outstanding charges on Dec. 7.

Potter said nothing in connection to those charges has been proven in court yet, but that Merkosak is expected to enter a guilty plea on one of the sexual assaults.

Merkosak’s defence lawyer, James Morton, also appearing before Kilpatrick Oct. 26 over teleconference, said Merkosak would have a different lawyer for the outstanding charges.