A B.C. Supreme Court Justice has ruled as admissible evidence seized by the RCMP in relation to an ongoing trial for a Prince George man accused of sexually abusing two of his stepdaughters.
At question had been whether the man's constitutional rights were violated when, worried the accused would use remote access to erase graphic images from his hard drives, police went into his apartment to unhook his computers without a search warrant.
There was also a concern that the defendant would commit suicide in the time from when the daughters gave statements to police to when police could obtain a warrant for his arrest.
The computers were later seized once the warrant was obtained while the man was arrested without a warrant.
In a ruling issued Thursday, Justice Selwyn Romilly agreed with the Crown's assertion that police were facing exigent circumstances and while they had grounds to obtain a warrant they "could not do so because of the risk of imminent loss or destruction of the evidence."
The trial began in September with three weeks of testimony and a further 20 days have been booked starting May 13, 2012.
The accused, who cannot be named under a court-ordered publication ban against information identifying the alleged victims, faces 14 sex-related charges, including sexual assault, sexual interference of a person under 14 years old, publishing child pornography and bestiality.
During the trial so far, the court heard that the man would invoke religious scripture to justify his actions. Defence counsel is arguing none of the activity alleged occurred before the two, now 20 and 23 years old, had turned 18.
