Charges of sexual assault and exploitation against a Medicine Hat vice-principal by a junior high school student have been dismissed by a provincial court judge.
Gregory Fritzke, 44, was charged in February 2009 after a now 19-year-woman heard news reports that her former vice-principal was facing child pornography allegations and reported to police her interactions with the accused.
The woman — who cannot be identified — testified Friday of having a sexual liaison at the accused’s home sometime in July or August of 2004 when she was 14 years old.
However, defence lawyer Randal Pick successfully argued that Fritzke ceased to be in a position of authority over the teen as she had graduated from the school the accused worked at in June of 2004.
That, coupled with the age of sexual consent being 14 years old until 2008, led Judge Darwin Greaves to dismiss both charges, saying he is bound by the Criminal Code at the time of the alleged offence.
However, Greaves said he found the circumstances of the case to be “repugnant.”
The 19-year-old was the only witness to testify and her allegations of a sexual relationship between the two were not challenged in court.
The age of sexual consent in Canada was raised to 16-years-old in 2008, the first time it was raised in more than a century.