Mountie fired for sexting teen victim

RICHMOND, B.C.— An RCMP officer in Richmond, B.C., has been fired after a conduct review board found he used a police database to track down and send “flirty” text messages and suggestive photos to a teenage complainant in a sex-assault case.

The decision, released Nov. 8, says former constable Brian Eden’s behaviour undermined public confidence in the force. An RCMP spokesperson said Eden has been dismissed.

“The subject member’s decision to pursue contact with (the woman) via sexualized text messages (was) fundamentally at odds with the duties he clearly knew he owed a17-year-old sexual-assault complainant,” John McKinlay wrote about the officer on behalf of the RCMP’s conduct board.

Neither Eden nor his lawyer could be reached for comment. It is unclear whether an appeal is planned.

The conduct-board decision says Eden, 40 at the time, first contacted the 17-year-old woman in January 2015 to collect a witness statement related to a sexual-assault investigation. He accessed the police database two days later to look up the same investigation “for unauthorized personal reasons,” the document says.

Eden reportedly sent about 280 texts to the young woman between Feb. 1 and 11. The exchange ended only when the woman’s messages began to suggest she was thinking of killing herself and Eden was forced to call for help and identify himself.

Also Wednesday, a former RCMP inspector was found not guilty of sexually assaulting a civilian employee in a washroom at the force’s B.C. headquarters. Tim Shields, who was a high-profile spokesperson for the RCMP, was accused of sexually assaulting the woman in 2009.

The trial heard that Shields and the complainant, who cannot be identified because of a publication ban, had a sexual encounter in a unisex washroom. Shields testified the woman was a willing participant, but Crown attorney Michelle Booker maintained he was mistaken.