Man charged with animal abuse in Pictou County a no-show at hearing

PICTOU, N.S. — David Oakley’s request to withdraw his earlier guilty pleas to harming animals has been dismissed.

On Feb. 14, 2019 Oakley was originally arrested and charged with causing undue suffering to seven puppies and two adult dogs in his care.

Oakley allegedly bludgeoned the dogs with an axe.

He pled guilty to the charges on June 10, but his defense attorney, Elizabeth Cooper, later applied to have those guilty pleas withdrawn.

According to the application to withdraw, which was filed by Cooper on Oct. 5, “The facts revealed by the necropsy report assist the applicant significantly in raising reasonable doubt about whether he caused unnecessary suffering because the animals died quickly.”

Jan. 6 was the day scheduled to determine whether or not the guilty plea would be withdrawn or not.

But when the time came, Oakley was not there. Oakley’s application to withdraw his guilty pleas was dismissed by Del Atwood who also issued a bench warrant for Oakley’s arrest.

The sentencing hearing for these charges hasn’t been scheduled yet.

Trial

Right now, Oakley still has trial dates on June 17 and 18, 2020 for additional charges which he pled not guilty to.

On Sept. 30, Oakley was arraigned in Pictou Provincial court for new charges stemming from the same incident back in February.

These charges refer directly to killing the dogs.

Following the latest decision and Oakley’s failure to appear in court on Jan. 6, his lawyer, Elizabeth Cooper has removed herself from the case.