A senior Ontario judge found guilty of judicial misconduct for raping a woman and breaking her wrist has escaped punishment by retiring from the bench.
Ontario Court Justice Paul Currie, 71, retired as of Friday, just days before he was set to face a penalty hearing, according to the Ontario Judicial Council, which investigates and disciplines provincially-appointed judges.
“Since Justice Currie is no longer a judge of that court, the council no longer has jurisdiction over the complaint about his conduct,” says a notice posted on the council’s website. “As a result, the hearing on the appropriate disposition of the complaint will not proceed.”
Currie was facing a penalty hearing next Wednesday after a four-member discipline panel concluded that he committed judicial misconduct, in that he sexually assaulted a woman in January 2023 and pushed her and broke her wrist in a separate incident three months later; that he had driven while drinking alcohol on multiple occasions; that he failed to turn himself in for five days in April 2023 on assault charges despite knowing there was a warrant out for his arrest, and that he tried to dissuade the woman from participating in judicial council’s investigation.
Currie has maintained his innocence throughout. “I did not rape (her),” he testified last year. “I would not rape (her) or anybody.”
