A young man from the Sahtu community of Tulita has been sentenced to four months in jail for offering a bribe to a woman he’d been charged with sexually assaulting to not testify against him.
Stuart Campbell, 26, received his punishment in a Yellowknife courtroom on Monday, at which time the sex assault charge was officially stayed.
That means prosecutors, if they choose, have one year to re-introduce the charge.
It was not made clear in court why the charge was stayed.
Campbell was convicted of obstruction of justice on April 2 in Tulita.
The offence carries at ten-year maximum sentence.
Evidence showed that Campbell had offered the woman between $500 and $1,000 to not testify against him.
There is no evidence that he paid her any money.
The judge said that these types of attempts to influence witnesses in the NWT are not uncommon, adding that obstruction is a very serious offence.
Indeed, earlier this year it was revealed in court that a Yellowknife man, now convicted of sexual assault on three underage girls, wrote to at least one of them from jail, trying to talk her out of testifying against him.
Campbell was also placed on 18 months probation and ordered to have no contact with the woman he offered the bride to.