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Brandon Gilbert from Aamjiwnaang was initially charged with aggravated assault linked to what Sarnia police said was a fight during a gathering on Maness Court in the First Nation south of the city on Aug. 28, 2022. Dalton Bressette was taken to London hospital in critical condition, police said at the time.
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But Bressette, a 26-year-old father of three, died on Sept. 4, 2022 and Gilbert was arrested 11 days later and charged instead with manslaughter. A two-week trial is expected to start in Sarnia’s Superior Court of Justice in January 2025.
While awaiting his trial, a new case recently surfaced. Sarnia police announced Feb. 5 Gilbert, who was out on bail, was arrested on the heels of a sexual assault investigation by its criminal investigations division. New charges were laid including sexual assault, sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching, making child pornography, possessing child pornography, and two counts of failing to comply with a release order, police said.
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The charges allege Gilbert recorded a video of himself having sex with a girl younger than 16 at some point while out on bail. The charges haven’t been tested in court.
Gilbert, who was granted bail multiple times while just the manslaughter charge was outstanding, had another bail hearing in March on the two cases. Justice of the peace Debra Isaac recently returned with her decision.
“Detention is ordered,” she said.
The reasons for her decision to deny bail along with all evidence called at the hearing are covered by a publication ban that will be in place until the charges are dropped or the trials are over.
Gilbert was briefly back in court Friday by video link from the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Center in London. The new case was adjourned to April 22. In the meantime, he’s banned from contacting four people, including the underage girl.
Gilbert, who got out on bail three separate times in the fall of 2022, pleaded guilty last year to breaching one of his previous release orders. Justice Paul Kowalyshyn granted him a conditional discharge on probation, but also lectured him.
“You breached literally within days. The ink was barely dry,” he said during a sentencing hearing in September.
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