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By: Jane Sims
LONDON, ONT. — The former mayor of Woodstock has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault allegations in a London courtroom.
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Trevor Birtch, 48, who served two terms as mayor until he was defeated in the fall of 2022, entered not guilty pleas Monday to two counts of sexual assault and one count of assault involving a single female complainant in 2021.
The complainant was expected to testify during Monday’s proceedings, using a closed-circuit suite away from the courtroom. Her identity is protected by a court order.
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Birtch, who was wearing a suit and sporting a ponytail, appeared in the London courtroom seated beside his defence lawyer, James Battin.
The trial, scheduled to last four days, is being heard by Superior Court Justice Michael Carnegie.
Birtch was charged in London in February 2022.
A second set of three sexual assault charges, involving a different complainant between January 2017 and April 2022, was laid in London in April 2022. Birtch is scheduled to go to trial on those charges in September.
A father of three, Birtch was first elected as Woodstock’s mayor in 2014 and re-elected in 2018. He
ran for a third term in the fall of 2022, with the high-profile criminal charges looming, and was trounced at the ballot box – finishing fourth out of six candidates with just 300 votes. He studied political science at Western University and worked as a financial analyst for the County of Oxford for more than a decade before entering municipal politics in Woodstock.
Jerry Acchione won the 2022 race and now serves as mayor of Woodstock, in his first term.
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