Sentencing on sex offences delayed for former head of Better Business Bureau

An admitted sex offender has delayed his sentencing yet again.

In July of last year, Peter Alan Moorhouse, 49, pleaded guilty to two offences involving a young girl. Moorhouse, the former president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Atlantic Canada, was charged in February 2021 for crimes that police say were committed in January of that year.

The specific charges are that Moorhouse arranged to commit a sexual offence against a child and that he possessed child pornography.

He was supposed to go to trial last summer in Nova Scotia Provincial Court in Shubenacadie. But instead, he entered guilty pleas in July 2022. There have been several attempts since then to schedule a sentencing hearing.

The latest was Thursday morning. Lawyers agreed to postpone the sentencing yet again, while they await a decision from the Supreme Court of Canada. The country's top court is hearing a constitutional challenge to mandatory minimum sentences.

One of the crimes Moorhouse has admitted to now carries a mandatory minimum sentence of one year in jail. Moorhouse's lawyer wants to delay sentencing until after the Supreme Court ruling is released, in case it strikes down that minimum sentence.

No one can predict exactly when the ruling might come down, but they will try to begin the sentencing hearing again in July. Moorhouse remains free on conditions in the meantime.

A second man who was charged along with Moorhouse, Carlos Moraga, 38, pleaded guilty in March to two offences. He's admitted to making, publishing or possessing child pornography and of sexual interference. He's to be sentenced on those charges in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Truro on June 8.