Former N.S. paramedic denied funding for appeal of sex assault convictions

HALIFAX — A former paramedic convicted of two sexual assaults while on the job in Nova Scotia has lost a bid to have his appeal paid for by the province.

James Duncan Keats, 52, was found guilty in December 2015 of groping two patients.

In his appeal, Keats said his lawyer didn’t follow his instructions. As well, he said the judge “incorrectly presented some facts, which gave a negative bias to my case.”

Nova Scotia Legal Aid refused to handle the appeal, saying it lacked merit.

Keats said he was too broke to pay for his own appeal because his 18-year career as a paramedic ended when he was fired in 2013 as a result of the sexual assault allegations. He was charged in 2014 with five counts of sexual assault, but only four of these charges were tried in Nova Scotia Supreme Court by a judge and jury.

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During his trial, four women testified Keats touched and groped their breasts and genitals. He said he had listened to their chest and abdomen with a stethoscope but never touched their genitals. He was later acquitted in two of the cases.

In October 2016, Keats was sentenced to 30 months in prison.

He asked the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal to order funding for an appeal, but it refused in a ruling released Friday.

While the court accepted that Keats has no money, it said justice would not be served by ordering the appointment of state-funded lawyer. 

Keats also argued he has “borderline Attention Deficit Disorder,” but the appeal court said he was competent enough to handle his own appeal.

After a separate trial, Keats was  found guilty in May 2015 of one count of sexually assaulting a 71-year-old woman during a medical call. He was sentenced five months later to four years in jail.

Keats raped the woman in her home in the Annapolis Valley in 2013 while his partner tended to her ailing husband in another room, court heard.

The Crown said Keats took the woman to her upstairs bedroom to examine her when she complained of chest pains after her husband fell in their kitchen.

Court heard that Keats asked the woman to lay on the bed, undressed her, fondled her and had intercourse with her, telling her, “You’re going to feel so much better.”

The woman pleaded with him to stop, but he persisted and kissed her hand when he left the room, saying, “You’re a beautiful lady,” court heard.

In that case, Keats was found not guilty of a second charge of sexual assault involving the same woman in 2012. He was also acquitted of two counts of breach of trust.

The Canadian Press