New trial ordered for Sask. school principal accused of groping student

Geoff McFarland was convicted of sexual assault in 2023. A judge now says the initial ruling failed to consider all the evidence.

Warning: This story contains details some readers may find upsetting.

More than a year after a former Neilburg, Sask. principal was convicted of sexually assaulting one of his students, a Court of King’s Bench judge has ordered a new trial.

At the start of the 2021 school year, when Geoff McFarlan was the principal of Neilburg’s village school, he was accused of groping a 12-year-old student’s buttocks while she was getting a binder from her locker between classes.