Charges against a White Rock senior arrested last August in connection with a sexual assault have been withdrawn as a result of DNA evidence.
Neil MacKenzie, spokesman for the Criminal Justice Branch, confirmed Friday that the decision regarding Frederick Anthony Barron was made Feb. 5.
“There was additional evidence in the case that wasn’t available when the case was (initially) reviewed,” MacKenzie told Peace Arch News. “That evidence concluded that Mr. Barron was not the perpetrator.”
Barron and his wife, Precelina, say the news reaffirms what they knew from day one: that Barron was innocent.
Now, they want an apology, from both the RCMP and the woman who they say identified him as her attacker.
The 77-year-old was arrested on Aug. 29 after a woman in her 20s reported she was assaulted near Victoria Avenue and Ash Street as she waited outside to go to work. Police at the time said only that the victim was “more than” grabbed, was not injured in the attack and did not know her assailant.
Barron, who lives across the street, told PAN Wednesday that he was at Peace Arch Hospital for a painful medical condition at the time in question – and he offered to show police the paperwork from the hospital to prove it.
He described his arrest and the months since as “humiliating.”
“It’s the worst thing that happened to me in my life,” Barron said. “A lot of people don’t phone me anymore… because (they were told) I’m a pervert.”
Barron said he was handcuffed in his driveway as his neighbours watched, had to strip in the hallway at the RCMP detachment and spent 10 hours in a cell wearing only a white paper-like jumpsuit that was issued to him by police.
Precelina Barron said people have looked at her and her husband differently ever since the accusation. It’s “a very degrading thing,” she said.
She is hopeful copies of a letter from Crown counsel Matthew Stacey – advising that DNA results “were negative for a match” to Barron and that the charges have been withdrawn – will help. She has distributed the letter to neighbours.
“I want to clear our names,” she said. “I’m not happy with how police handled the whole thing.”
Const. Shaileshni Molison maintained police “have our reasons for why we thought he was a suspect.”
“We haven’t closed our police file,” Molison confirmed Friday. “Yes, the evidence so far has exonerated him.”
Molison would not comment on the evidence.