Neil Barry, a former NWT teacher convicted in May of sexually assaulting and exploiting two students between 2006 and 2010, has filed an appeal.
A jury convicted him of four crimes after a three-week trial but acquitted him of offences involving two other alleged victims.
The 48-year-old was subsequently sentenced to nine years in prison earlier this month.
In a notice filed with the NWT Court of Appeal last week, Barry says he seeks to appeal his conviction in part on the grounds that trial judge Justice David Gates made errors in the instructions he gave to the jury.
Barry alleges Gates “failed to give the jury the necessary strong cautions to guard against potential misuse” of evidence relating to the demeanour of people.
Advertisement.
Advertisement.
Barry further says the judge provided “incomplete and erroneously vague” instructions to the jury regarding how to evaluate evidence given by adults about events that occurred before they turned 18 years old.
He also lists concerns about the admission and analysis of some evidence.
In May, the jury found that Barry – who was a high school teacher, basketball coach, counsellor and mentor in Tulita – sexually abused two of his underaged students in the community and during trips to Yellowknife.
Barry had denied all allegations of sexual abuse and maintained his innocence following the trial.
He taught in Tulita and Fort Simpson between 2007 and 2017. He also worked as a teacher in Meander River, Alberta, and Coral Harbour, Nunavut, and was a principal in High Prairie, Alberta prior to his arrest in June 2021.
