Judge stays charges in 1979 Vernon sexual assault
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Updated: September 18, 2009 4:01 PM
A Kelowna Supreme Court Judge has stayed charges against a man accused of sexually assaulting a then-nine-year-old girl in Vernon 30 years ago.
Charges against Wilbur James Ventling, 63, were stayed in Kelowna Supreme Court Friday.
The Morning Star learned that charter issues were among the reasons for the judge's move.
Ventling was facing charges of rape and causing bodily harm with intent to wound, maim or disfigure following the May 1979 attack on the unidentified girl.
He was arrested outside his home in Carson City, Nev. in the fall of 2007 after Vernon RCMP re-opened the case in 2003 by forwarding items from the original crime to a lab for DNA analysis. The samples were sent to Nevada in 2005 and a positive match was received.
The girl was lured into the woods outside of Vernon by a man who said he had been searching for his cat. The girl was then assaulted.
See Sunday's Morning Star for more on this developing story.
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