By Andrew Bates, Telegraph-Journal, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
A Charlotte County man has been convicted following a second trial on an allegation that he sexually assaulted a child.
Richard Allen Sutherland, 65, stood trial in May on a charge of sexual assault dating between 2014 and 2017. Sutherland was previously convicted in 2024 of the charge, but the Court of Appeal set aside his conviction and ordered a new trial.
Sutherland was accused of sexually assaulting a girl under age 10 on a camping trip in Charlotte County, Justice Darrell Stephenson said in his decision.
In the February 2025 appeal, Sutherland had argued that the original charge had specified 2014 as the year of the offences, and that during the trial, the Crown argued the offences could have also taken place in 2015. He argued that he would have gathered evidence to prove that the camping trip could not have happened in 2015, and after the Crown agreed, the Court of Appeal ordered a new trial.
Sutherland had also appealed a 2023 conviction on a charge of sexual assault against a different girl under age 16 between June 1, 2011, and August 31, 2012, and the appeal was dismissed. He was sentenced to 26 months in prison on that charge and had been sentenced to 20 months on the 2024 conviction before it was overturned on appeal.
Brunswick News is withholding details subject to publication bans that protect the identities of the victims in both cases.
During Sutherland’s retrial, Stephenson said the victim, now an adult, testified that on a camping trip, she was lying on a bed in Sutherland’s trailer when he laid down beside her, put his hands under her pants and touched her for a period of about 15 to 20 minutes.
The girl testified that when the defendant’s wife, Suzanne Sutherland, entered the trailer, she got up and left with her, but her testimony was not clear on whether she was still in bed when his wife entered the trailer’s bedroom, the judge said. The girl had testified that it was not the only time or the first time the man had been in bed with her, the judge said.
Richard Sutherland denied the assault happened and denied they were ever alone together in the trailer, with Suzanne Sutherland testifying that she never saw the girl and her husband together in bed, the judge said.
Stephenson said their testimony differed from that of the girl and her mother about how often the families had camped together in 2014 and 2015. He noted that the girl’s description of the trailer’s interior matched Suzanne Sutherland’s despite the woman’s testimony that they had only camped together three times in that period before the trailer was sold in 2016.
The girl testified in a “clear, concise, and factual manner,” according to the judge, who said she conceded when she did not remember “peripheral” details like her exact age and what happened after the assault. He said the Sutherlands “were not credible witnesses,” adding that he did not find their evidence of a lack of opportunity to be “reliable or credible.”
The judge said the “similar fact evidence” from Sutherland’s other conviction can serve as a piece of circumstantial evidence based on “the improbability of coincidence” and can be used to assess credibility.
“The evidence I do accept in this case does not leave me with a reasonable doubt,” Stephenson said. “I’m sure this incident did in fact occur, and on that basis have concluded that Mr. Sutherland is guilty as charged.”
Sutherland’s lawyer Shanna Wicks asked for a pre-sentence report, and the judge scheduled his sentencing hearing for Nov. 12.
