A new trial has been ordered for C.B.S. lawyer and businessman Robert Regular on sexual assault charges.

Regular, in his early 70s, was acquitted in 2024 of five allegations by one woman when she was between 12 and 15, and later as a young adult.

The case turned on her credibility, with Justice Vikas Khaladkar citing “troubling” inconsistencies in her testimony.

But the Crown appealed, and in a 2 to 1 decision this week, the court overturned the acquittals and ordered a new trial, listing a number of errors by Khaladkar.

Mainly, allowing the woman to be cross-examined on a separate incident, which one judge said, “did no more than permit a wide-ranging attack on her general character,” adding that “came dangerously close to invoking one of the twin myths that because of other sexual activity, she was less worthy of belief.”

The woman and her family had been clients of Regular for years, going back two decades when the incidents are said to have occurred.

Regular had sought a publication ban on his name before the trial started, but that was ultimately denied by the Supreme Court of Canada.

He still has the option of appealing this latest decision to the same court, but it’s not clear yet if he will.

A date for formal re-arraignment and new trial has not been set.