MacIntosh trial on sex charges to proceed

The trial of a former Nova Scotia businessman facing 36 sex-related charges will proceed after a judge threw out the defence argument there have been too many delays in the case.

Joseph Kennedy, chief justice of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court, says in his decision that Ernest Fenwick MacIntosh is largely responsible for the slow pace of his trial because he didn't voluntarily return to Canada to face the charges.

MacIntosh was accused by RCMP in 1995 of engaging in sex acts with six boys between 1970 and 1977 in a number of communities in eastern Nova Scotia and Cape Breton.

Kennedy notes that MacIntosh didn't quickly return to Canada from India after an RCMP officer informed him of the charges in 1996.

In his decision, Kennedy notes that MacIntosh "knew he had big trouble in Nova Scotia," but waited for authorities to go through lengthy extradition procedures.

MacIntosh spent 13 years in India before he was arrested in April 2007.