A convicted pedophile in his 70s has been acquitted of a charge of failing to inform police about his location upon his return to Canada from overseas last October.
Ernest Fenwick MacIntosh was absent during the brief hearing at the Montreal courthouse and represented by his lawyer.
MacIntosh was charged in Montreal with the offence last fall.
Reading out a joint statement of facts, crown prosecutor Annabelle Sheppard said documents provided by the defence and verified by police said that MacIntosh was too ill to check in with police at the time.
"The doctor who was treating Mr. MacIntosh did confirm that at the time he was on the verge of death with melanoma, not in a position where he would have been able to communicate and register (with police)," Sheppard told CJAD 800.
"He was in a wheelchair with no phone and now (...) he has gotten much better but at the time of the alleged infraction, unfortunately, it provided him with a defence."
Sheppard said MacIntosh has since registered with police.
MacIntosh recently served a seven year sentence in Nepal for sexually abusing a nine-year-old boy there.
MacIntosh's convictions of sexually abusing boys in Nova Scotia in the 1970s was overturned due to excessive court delays.