Ex-RCMP employee alleging sex assault says she has PTSD
VANCOUVER — A former RCMP employee who alleges she was sexually assaulted by a nowretired inspector in a locked washroom at their Vancouver workplace says she’s been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
The complainant told provincial court Thursday she was diagnosed with PTSD after she left her civilian job with the RCMP.
Tim Shields, who was the public face of the RCMP as the department’s spokesman in British Columbia, has pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual assault.
Court has heard the woman, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, was allegedly sexually assaulted in the fall of 2009.
The woman said she suffers from nightmares, pain in her hips, neck, back and knees, and has difficulty concentrating.
She said she has a tough time putting together “words and sentences” and sometimes needs to “write down words, write down questions.”
“It assists by helping me string the words together,” the woman told the judge-alone trial.
“I still have all the symptoms,” she said of her PTSD diagnosis.
Shields, who spent much of Thursday’s proceedings taking notes, left the RCMP in December 2015. He was charged in May 2016. Crown attorney Michelle Booker took the woman through her work history at the RCMP on Thursday and had her read through emails she had sent to several supervisors. The woman read various performance appraisals over the years of her employment, each suggesting she was a committed employee.