A man who pleaded guilty to a dozen counts of sexual assault while posing as a traditional healer is trying to change his plea and argue he is innocent.
Last October Cecil Wolfe pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting women in Saskatoon, Muskeg Lake Cree Nation and Loon Lake.
According to an agreed statement of facts that Wolfe signed, he would often ask the women to visit while wearing a skirt, then ask them to remove their underwear before he began touching them inappropriately. Wolfe claimed what he was doing was not sexual and that he was removing “bad medicine.”
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On Thursday in a Saskatoon provincial court a judge heard Wolfe applied to have his guilty plea expunged – meaning he would again stand trial if his application is successful.
The assaults to which he pleaded guilty took place between 2013 and 2021.
The Saskatoon police sex crimes unit first charged him in September 2021.
The statement of facts, to which his defence counsel and the Crown prosectors agreed, stated women sometimes didn’t question Wolfe, who is Indigenous, because he is an elder and because they believed he was a healer.
Lana Morelli, a Crown prosecutor, told reporters expunging a guilty plea relies on the applicant successfully arguing they were not properly informed, pleaded under duress or did not fully appreciate the consequences of their actions.
The matter has been adjourned for case management, which is not open to the public, on January 23. Should a judge rule the application is warranted, another public hearing will be scheduled.
With a file from Global News’ Easton Hamm.
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