Ontario’s Court of Appeal has upheld the sexual assault conviction of a former Western University professor who tried to overturn his nearly two-year-old conviction.

Ajay Ray was found guilty in November 2024 of sexually assaulting a lab supervisor in his department. A three-judge panel rejected his appeal on Wednesday.

Superior Court Justice Spencer Nicholson determined that Ray pushed the woman against a wall in her office, pulled down her pants and penetrated her vagina with his fingers.

In April 2025, Nicholson sentenced Ray to 720 days in the community, which included 425 days of house arrest followed by a curfew. His sentence is set to conclude on March 31, 2027.

A request for comment sent to Naomi M. Lutes, Ray’s lawyer for the appeal, was not returned before publication.

In his appeal, Ray claimed that Nicholson made mistakes during the trial, including allowing an edited transcript of a conversation secretly recorded by the victim and applying “unequal standards of scrutiny” to their evidence.

In their ruling, Ontario Court of Appeal judges David M. Paciocco, Jonathon C. George and Lisa Brownstone dismissed Ray’s arguments, including those regarding the transcript.

Ray argued that the transcript “reflected the complainant’s interpretation” of what was said in the conversation.

Ajay Ray leaves the London, Ont. courthouse following a hearing on March 5, 2025. (Isha Bhargava/)

The panel found no problem with how Nicholson dealt with the annotated transcript, stating that neither it nor the certified transcript were accepted as evidence and were only utilized by the judge as aids while listening to the recording.

Ray contended that the victim’s handwritten notes influenced Nicholson’s decision; however, the panel found this argument unconvincing since his lawyer had agreed to allow Nicholson access to those annotations and Ray had ample opportunity to present his own perspective during testimony.

“(Nicholson’s) reasons disclose no reliance on the complainant’s annotations as evidence or any preference for her interpretation merely because it had been reduced to writing,” wrote the panel.

The recording was made six days after the assault. In it, Ray can be heard saying, “I have never ever touched anybody other than you that way.”

At trial, Ray claimed he meant touching her hand to calm her down during an argument over her requests for a teaching assistant along with a computer and phone. Nicholson dismissed that explanation.

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