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

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 morningfor 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.

• Identity of N.L. lawyer in sexual assault case revealed as top court won't hear anonymity bid

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.

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