Mitchell Wilson will be able to have his voice heard in court after all.

The 11-year-old from Pickering, Ont., had been subpoenaed to testify against a boy accused of attacking and robbing him. But a day after receiving the subpoena last September, he committed suicide.

Father Craig Wilson said his son, who had muscular dystrophy, had been terrified of having to testify against the accused boy, who is charged with robbery and assault causing bodily harm.

"It's stressful to come back and relieve what he went through that day," said the elder Wilson.

Without Wilson to testify, there had been concerns the Crown would have to drop the case.

But on Monday, Justice Mary Theresa Devlin ruled that the four statements that Wilson gave to police, and to his stepmother, Tiffany Usher, can be entered into evidence.

"I conclude that that the Crown has established on a balance of probabilities that all four of the statements made by Mitchell Wilson are reliable," Devlin wrote in her decision.

She said Wilson's statements are "highly prejudicial" to the accused but the "probative value of Mitchell Wilson's statements outweighs the prejudice."

According to the victim's aunt, it's comforting to have a small victory in the case, no matter what the outcome.

"He deserves his day in court, whether it's his photo or us there," said aunt Cheryl Wilson. "I want others to see that that his voice was heard."

The case is a bench trial that is being heard without a jury.

With the ruling, the trial against the 13-year-old accused, who can't be identified, can go ahead.

In the statements, Mitchell identifies the 13-year-old as one of the two boys who jumped and robbed him of his dad's iPhone while he was out walking in his neighbourhood in November, 2010.

One of the officers who took a statement from Wilson has already testified that he identified the boy out of class photos and told him he was "100 per cent" certain he'd picked the right suspect.

In one statement, Wilson says he and his mother ran into the accused at school.

The accused "looked at me and then looked at my mom and went the other way," Wilson said. "We went into the office and I told my mom (he robbed me.)"

It is unusual for the Crown to use "hearsay" statements from a witness who can't testify and can't be cross-examined.

But Justice Devlin concluded the Crown established on a balance of probabilities that the statements can be admitted under a "principled exception to the hearsay rule."

Although the judge has accepted the statement into evidence, that does not mean that she accepts the statement to be true.

Wilson killed himself on Sept. 6, 2011, the day he was set to return to school after summer break.

His family told the court last November that Mitchell never recovered psychologically from the assault and regularly suffered from anxiety attacks.

Wilson hung himself by tying a plastic bag around his neck.

With a report from CTV's Michelle Dube and Omar Sachedina