An N.L. man is accused of abusing boys. His lawyer wants charges tossed due to delays

ST. JOHN’S – The lawyer for a man accused of sexually abusing and exploiting teenage boys in St. John’s, N.L., argued Thursday that many charges against his client should be set aside because of trial delays.

Mark Gruchy has filed a so-called Jordan application in the case of Tony Humby, who is on trial for more than 70 charges for crimes spanning more than a dozen years. Humby was 62 when he was first arrested in April 2023, and his trial has dragged on for more than a year.

Lawyers can file Jordan applications when legal proceedings in provincial court exceed 18 months, as set out by the Supreme Court of Canada’s landmark R. v. Jordan decision in 2016. But the time limits have faced increasing scrutiny across the country, particularly in cases involving sexual assault victims.

Shreya Virani, executive director of the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime, said it is important to protect people’s constitutional right to a timely trial, but the rights of victims must also be part of courts’ considerations of delays.

“Victims have to repeatedly revisit traumatic experiences, prepare themselves to testify, attend court and wait for a resolution,” Virani said in an emailed statement. “When charges are ultimately stayed because of delay, victims are left feeling that the system has failed to recognize the seriousness of what happened to them.”

In her closing arguments Wednesday, Crown prosecutor Deidre Badcock said Humby had a pattern of befriending teen boys in group homes — at least one as young as 12 — and giving them drugs and alcohol, often in exchange for sex. In some cases, the boys passed out on Humby’s couch, only to wake up finding he was assaulting them, she said.

Gruchy has argued that the testimonies from the victims were rife with inconsistencies. However, Badcock said much of the discrepancies were peripheral and minor.

She described Humby as a predator who couldn’t help himself.

On Thursday, Gruchy told a provincial courtroom that a major delay in Humby’s case came from several applications for records he had to make because of information that was accidentally released to him. The trial had to be rescheduled, Gruchy said, through no fault of the defence.

“It wasn’t our desire to slow this trial down,” Gruchy said, adding: “There’s a certain peculiarity in the fact that a lot of what generates the delay are the very protections in the (Criminal Code) for victims of sexual assault.”

Exceeding Jordan limits can be justified in complex cases, and Gruchy acknowledged the Humby case was complicated. Badcock presented evidence and testimony from 10 complainants, many of whom were much younger and intoxicated at the time of Humby’s alleged crimes. 

However, Gruchy said there were some delays that would be difficult to justify with complexity alone.

In a review last year, the Office of the Federal Ombudsperson for Victims of Crime pointed to reporting from CBC News that found at least 268 sexual assault cases across Canada had been stayed because of unreasonable delays since the 2016 Jordan decision.

“Maintaining the current approach to R. v. Jordan is unsustainable,” said the report, called “Rethinking Justice for Survivors of Sexual Violence: A systemic investigation.”

“It is compromising access to justice, violating victim rights to protection and participation and undermining public confidence in the judicial system in Canada.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2026.