Charges against eastern Ontario man stayed in foster child sex assault case

PICTON, Ont. -- Sex assault charges against a former foster parent in Prince Edward County in eastern Ontario have been stayed.

A trial was to have begun Monday in Picton, Ont., court for 65-year-old Ronald Slatter of Bloomfield on charges of sexual assault, sexual interference and sexual exploitation.

Assistant Crown attorney Jodi Whyte asked that the charges be stayed, citing a limited prospect of a conviction and other reasons.

Provincial police charged Slatter and two other people with a variety of offences after three young women alleged in 2012 that sexual assault and child pornography incidents occurred at foster homes while they were in the care of the Prince Edward County Children's Aid Society in 2003, 2004, 2007 and 2010.

Sherilee Slatter, 36, of Sudbury, Ont., was sentenced to three years in prison on Feb. 5 for sexual assault, invitation to sexual touching and sexual exploitation in connection with an incident involving a 15-year-old boy in 2005 and an attack on a 15-year-old girl in 2008.

Her estranged husband, 47-year-old Richard Fildey of Cameron, near Lindsay, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison last August after being convicted of sexually abusing a female foster child in 2004.