Charges against a St. Catharines man who was caught on video performing a sexual act in his neighbours' backyard have been dropped, leaving the victims and MPPs outraged.
"We feel vulnerable," Patricia Marshall said at Queen's Park on Monday. "I'm a strong woman. I was raised by strong women. But at the same time, we have been left in this position where we are being forced to be vulnerable."
Last winter, Marshall and her daughters noticed tracks in the snow of their back yard. They had an infrared camera installed.
Within 24 hours, the then-18-year-old man and was videotaped lurking and masturbating outside his neighbours' bedroom and bathroom windows.
The video shows a young man wearing a hat, T-shirt and backpack tip-toe up to the window with his hands in his pants, performing a lewd act. As he leaves the property, the suspect moves around the snow with his feet, in an apparent attempt to wipe out his footprints.
Niagara Police charged the man with criminal harassment.
But the charges were later dropped and the family says the Crown struck a secret deal without even telling the women or police.
Outraged and frustrated, Marshall and her 20-year-old daughter Lindsay went to Queen's Park looking for justice.
"I don't feel comfortable, safe. It's not a home, it's a house. It's just a shell," Lindsay Marshall said as she sat next to her mother.
The family said the teen allegedly walked by the bedroom of Courtney, another of Marshall's daughters, twice after the charge was dropped. He's heard on the tape, recorded at 1 a.m. saying "Courtney, get up, get up." All three women now shower in the basement of their home.
Opposition MPP Christine Elliot said the wrong message is being sent to women everywhere, and declared the Crown's response inadequate.
"I think it's incumbent on the attorney general to do something to protect these women, who are clearly feeling abandoned by our justice system," she said.
Attorney General Chris Bentley said he takes the case very seriously and adds the Crown followed guidelines and wrote a lengthy letter to the family explaining why they didn't take the charge to trial. However, the Crown attorney should have probably talked in person with the family, he said.
In a shocking twist, the alleged Peeping Tom is now threatening legal action against the Marshall family for pointing their security cameras at his home.
"The cameras were our last line of defense and now they want to take that away," Patricia said.
Marshall said she can't sell the house because no one would want to live there. Besides, she adds, she'd never put another family through her hellish nightmare.
The opposition said if Bentley is serious, he'll instruct his staff to re-lay the charge.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Paul Bliss
