Incest charges against a Coquitlam, B.C., man have been stayed after police failed to translate video taped statements from his alleged victims for almost two years.

The accused, referred to in court as H.S.O. due to a publication ban, was arrested in 2008 and charged with 13 crimes including sexual assault and incest.

In May of that year, weeks before the trial was set to begin, Crown prosecutors requested the date be pushed back because they had not received translations of two statements made in Russian and Dari.

The trial was delayed three more times, at the request of Crown counsel, without a translation being produced.

The court heard that police had requested funding for the translations in April 2008, which were denied. The Crown did not reference any other funding requests.

Judge Marion Buller Bennett, in a ruling released earlier this month, determined that H.S.O.'s Charter right to be tried within a reasonable time had been breached and the charges against him were stayed.

Bennett then decried the lack of justice for either the victims or the accused.

"It is very disturbing that the value of the complainants' sexual, physical and emotional integrity is less than the cost of translation and transcription," Bennett said.

"H.S.O. has been publicly charged with very serious offences and he now has no ability to clear his name."

Tens of thousands of dollars

Explaining the delay on behalf the Coquitlam RCMP, Sgt. Peter Thiessen told ctvbc.ca that the tapes required a highly specialized translation process in order to be considered admissible as evidence.

"Very specialized," he said. "And the languages involved that needed to be translated were also challenging."

Translation companies initially quoted a price in the tens of thousands of dollars, Thiessen said, a cost that was not considered "fiscally responsible." Police then began a lengthy process of finding a viable alternative.

"You have to appreciate that it took longer than anybody would have wanted to, it's not something that anybody would have wanted to see happen. It's one of many ongoing investigations of a serious nature, and unfortunately it took that amount of time to keep it moving forward."

Thiessen added that the tapes have now been translated and are available to Crown counsel.

"That is my understanding," he said.