Three young adults charged with committing serious crimes against children appeared again in court today.
Shayne Lund, Avery Taylor, and Kathryn Thompson were back in a Barrie court today facing charges that include sexual assault, making and distributing child pornography, bestiality, and conspiring to administer a noxious substance.
Lawyers met in closed chambers with the judge this morning. Then Lund, Taylor, and Thompson were brought into the courtroom together. Lawyers for the two women quickly asked to have their clients separated from Lund, as they had been at their last appearance. And that wasn't the only thing counsel addressed with the judge today.
“There are court orders about no contact and that's a recurrent issue,” says lawyer Mel Malick. “There have been transport problems. The three accused were seated in the prisoners’ van last date right beside each other.”
He adds: “It's in violation that's begging a breach of the no-contact terms because they are actually handcuffed together.”
He says this raises some issues.
“There is no guard that sits in the back of a prisoners van there's a camera running, but there is no one of authority. So with the no contact order, there is no one there to enforce it,” he says. “People can't always be trusted to behave.”
The preliminary hearing is scheduled to happen over six weeks starting this fall. Lawyers say there a lot to do to get ready.
“There is a plethora of material to go through. Most of it is electronic, each counsel has been given a large hard-drive,” says Angela McLeod. “There are thousands of pages of disclosure, dozens and dozens of hours of video tape to screen, there are some 11 or 12 complainants and to my knowledge to date there are about 36 civilian witnesses. There are dozens of police officers’ notes that we have to go through.”
Going forward, the judge ordered that the women be transported in a separate vehicle to and from every court appearance. Lawyers will continue to meet once a month with the judge until the preliminary hearing.
Kathryn Thompson's lawyer says they are going to try and move forward with a bail review hearing. That could happen within the month.
CTV News again asked the OPP for a comment on the investigation, and they have yet to agree to give an interview. Lund is the son of an OPP officer.
All three accused will be back in court at the end of April.
