Law360 Canada ( September 26, 2025, 11:55 AM EDT) -- Appeal by Crown from a judgment of the Alberta Court of Appeal which varied Sheppard’s sentence. Motion by Sheppard to adduce new evidence. Sheppard was found guilty by a jury of sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching and sexual assault. At the time the crimes occurred, the complainant was a grade seven student and Sheppard was a teacher at the boarding school the complainant attended. The complainant’s evidence was that there had been between 10 and 12 instances of sexual abuse. Sheppard testified in his defence and denied all allegations. The jury returned a guilty verdict on each count. The sexual assault conviction was stayed, and Sheppard was sentenced to six years' imprisonment for each of the other two offences, to be served concurrently. The majority of the Court of Appeal determined that the sentencing judge made two material errors in principle. First, the reasons for her factual findings were insufficient and second, she erred by declining to consider pre-Friesen sentencing jurisprudence. It varied the sentence from six years’ incarceration to three years and 11 months. The Crown argued that the Court of Appeal was wrong to intervene and sought to have the original sentence restored. Sheppard argued that if the original sentence was restored, it would not be in the interests of justice to order his reincarceration. He brought a motion to adduce new evidence in support of his position. The Crown opposed the motion....