SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A Dettah man has been kept waiting to be sent south for a mental health assessment because his court order was lost in the shuffle.

The accused has been detained in the North Slave Correctional Facility since February after being charged with sexual assault.

Defence lawyer Garrett O'Brien said the man refused his services, which prompted him to recommend the man's mental health be assessed.

O'Brien told the court the order of assessment was signed June 16 by Judge Robert Gorin. However, O'Brien said July 28 he was not sure whether the man had been sent south for the assessment. Judge Bernadette Schmaltz told him to find out, adjourning the matter until later that day.

Later, O'Brien said the accused had been in the correctional centre the whole time.

"I thought I had done everything required of me," said O'Brien. "Apparently, I didn't."

When asked what happened to the order and why the man was not sent south for the assessment, O'Brien told Yellowknifer he did not want to talk about "a file I no longer have in my hands."

"Tomorrow is my last day here and Sunday I leave Yellowknife and I'll never be back," he said on July 30.

Crown lawyer Shannon Smallwood said since the order was requested by O'Brien, the Crown was not involved in it and thus not in a position to comment on what happened.

"Obviously something didn't happen," she said. "He didn't get transported down for whatever reason." She added a bed was apparently available at Alberta Hospital in Edmonton at the time.

The accused appeared in court again Aug. 4. At that time, Judge Christine Gagnon decided to issue another assessment order as the previous one had expired.

An interim date was also set for Aug. 25 at which time the court will be provided with an update on the matter.

A return assessment date is set for Oct. 13.

Lydia Bardak of the John Howard Society said getting mental health assessments for NWT residents is difficult due to the lack of beds in Alberta institutions, on which the territory must rely. She said she was surprised to hear a bed may have been open last month for the accused.

"I've never heard of one being available that soon," she said.

Bardak said a mental health assessment can help determine whether a person is mentally fit to stand trial and whether they were in control of their actions during their alleged crimes.

"Last year, there was a young man waiting in custody for a mental health assessment and finally, after six months, they went ahead with the trial and convicted him and sentenced him to time served and released him," said Bardak. "So he never had the benefit of mental health assessment or counselling."

She said the territory could benefit from a group home, where people could receive counselling for psychiatric or mental issues, along with substance abuse problems, instead of being held in custody.

"Our correctional centre ends up filling all those gaps," she said. "It's kind of sad because correctional facilities aren't the appropriate placement for some of these guys, but that's where they keep landing."

She said when someone can't walk, they will be given a wheelchair but people with mental health problems aren't always provided with services to assist them.

"Through that neglect, they end up costing us more through the criminal justice system," Bardak said.

- with files from Lauren McKeon