October trial date set for Oluwatosin Oluwafemi in death of 4-year-old daughter

A trial date has been set for this fall for a man arrested in Ontario and charged in the 2014 death of his four-year-old daughter in Alberta.

Oluwatosin Oluwafemi was arrested in December 2015 and flown back to Calgary to face a charge of second-degree murder.

Oluwafemi appeared in court Friday and a two-week trial date was set for Oct. 2.

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The court was originally told the earliest date would be Mar. 26, 2018.

Justice Earl Wilson of Court of Queen's Bench insisted such a delay would be unacceptable.

"There's no way we're going to be putting this trial off for another year," Wilson said Friday.

"This man is presumed innocent until proven otherwise."

Girl's injuries not result of accident

Officers were called to a home in Calgary on Dec. 19, 2014, and found the preschool girl in cardiac arrest and not breathing.

Olive Rebekah Oluwafemi was taken to hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Investigators said her injuries appeared to have been inflicted inside her home and were not the result of an accident.

In custody since arrest

Oluwafemi is originally from Nigeria and was working as a graduate engineer in the oil industry in Calgary.

He moved to Keswick, Ont., to be near his family.

Oluwafemi has been in custody since his arrest.

Wilson said he hoped more judges would be appointed in the near future to help deal with a court backlog.

Last summer the Supreme Court of Canada handed down a decision that set new rules to ensure accused persons get a trial within a reasonable time.

The court determined that cases at the provincial court level shouldn't take longer than 18 months and cases at the Superior Court level shouldn't take longer than 30 months from the time charges were laid.

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