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Sexual assault trial for N.L. lawyer Robert Regular delayed until 2024

Last year, lawyer Robert Regular went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada in an unsuccessful effort to have his name shielded from publication.
A man with greying hair and a mustache looks down as he faces a camera.
Robert Regular, pictured in a 2020 file photo, has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault and sexual interference charges. (CBC)

The trial for a Newfoundland lawyer accused of sexual assault has been delayed to next year.

Robert Regular is facing four counts of sexual assault and one of sexual interference, involving the same alleged victim. She was 12 at the time of the first alleged assault two decades ago.

His trial was scheduled to begin Monday.

Now it is on the docket for April 2024.

Lawyers were in court Friday morning for a pretrial application. It was held in camera, and details can't be reported.

Last year, Regular went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada in an unsuccessful effort to have his name shielded from publication.

Before that, Regular had been granted an interim ban in Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court. The order temporarily blocked his name from being published in relation to those criminal proceedings.

CBC News and CTV News intervened, arguing the ban would interfere with the open-court principle and freedom of the press, and ultimately won.

The nation's top court declined to hear the matter, clearing the way for his identity to be publicly revealed.

Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rob Antle is the producer for CBC's investigative unit in Newfoundland and Labrador. Ariana Kelland is a reporter with CBC in St. John's.