Sex-abuse appeal delayed for Fenwick MacIntosh

The appeal has been delayed for Ernest Fenwick MacIntosh, a former Nova Scotia businessman convicted last year of sex crimes against boys.

The Nova Scotia Appeal Court hearing for the 67-year-old man was supposed to begin Thursday in Halifax, butthe case was adjourned until June 8 because the Crown attorney was unavailable after a minor accident.

The Crown counsel is expectedto confirm by May 24 whether the new date is acceptable.

MacIntosh was convicted in July of 13 counts of gross indecency and indecent assault in a sex-abuse case involving boys in eastern Nova Scotia in the 1970s. He was sentenced to four years in jail and given two years credit for time he had already spent in custody.

It was the first of two sex-crime trials for MacIntosh.

The second took place in January, when he was found guilty on four more counts two each of gross indecency and indecent assault. He was sentenced to 18 months in jail with no credit for time served on those charges.

Shortly after MacIntosh's first trial was over, his lawyer,Brian Casey,announced the conviction would be appealed because of opposing testimony about a date.

"We said that because all of the complainants were adamant that there had been almost no contact with Mr. MacIntosh after April 1, 1974, that that placed their allegations as happening before April 1974, and we were then able to show, because of vehicle records and other things, that Mr. MacIntosh didn't even own the vehicles in question at that time," Casey said at the time.