Pictou District RCMP officer cleared of sexual assault allegation

A Pictou County RCMP officer has been cleared of wrong doing after an investigation into an allegation he had committed sexual assault. The province’s Serious Incident Response Team released a report about its investigation on Feb. 11. The investigation was prompted by a complaint from a community member and was referred to SiRT by the Pictou District RCMP on Nov. 7, 2019. SIRT is responsible for investigating all serious incidents involving police in Nova Scotia. As part of the investigation, SiRT interviewed the woman who was alleged to have been assaulted, a number of civilian witnesses and also reviewed text messages between the woman and the RCMP officer. The investigation determined that there had been sexual encounters between the woman and the officer but that all encounters were consensual. While the officer is described in the report as being significantly older than the woman, she was a young adult throughout the time in question. “There is no evidence that the (accused officer) used his position as a police officer to induce the (affected person) to engage in sexual activity,” SiRT interim director Pat Curran wrote in a summary of investigation. According to the summary, the woman had been interviewed and said her sexual activity with the police officer was consensual and she did not want him to get in trouble. The investigation showed that the officer and the woman had exchanged many electronic messages, but they were affectionate and not sexual in tone. The pair also exchanged photographs, but none of a sexual nature. “There are no reasonable grounds to lay a criminal charge against the (officer) in relation to his sexual activity with the (woman),” the summary of investigation states.