Former N.S. businessman guilty of sex abuse

A former Nova Scotia businessman has been found guilty of four counts of gross indecency and indecent assault in a sex-abuse case involving boys in the 1970s.

Ernest Fenwick MacIntosh, 67, faced 10 charges for allegedly molesting three boys in the 1970s. He was found not guilty on six of the charges in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Port Hawkesbury on Monday.

The guilty counts two each of gross indecency and indecent assault involve two of the three complainants.

Two complainants testified they were in their mid-teens when MacIntosh performed oral sex on them. The third complainant said he was nine or 10 years old when he was molested.

MacIntosh had told the court that he had sexual relations with two of the complainants, but said it was consensual when they were of legal age. He denied having any sexual relations with the third accuser.

Justice Joseph Kennedy said Monday there was not enough evidence to convict MacIntosh in the case of the third complainant. He was found not guilty of charges relating to that person.

For the other two complainants, who were between ages 15 and 17 when the abuse happened, Kennedy found MacIntosh guilty in the first incidents of abuse.

On the later charges, Kennedy said the fact that the complainants accompanied MacIntosh after he had already abused them once raised doubt about whether they had consented to the sex.

MacIntosh will be sentenced Feb. 11.

The former businessman, who was arrestedin2007 nearNew Delhi,was convicted in July of 13 counts of indecent assault and gross indecency involving two separate complainants in incidentsdating backto the 1970s.

He was sentenced to four years in prison, but was given credit for his two years on remand, leavingonly two years less a day to serve.

MacIntoshis appealing those convictions.

In October, MacIntosh was granted bail and he has been serving house arrest at his apartment in Dartmouth.