RELATIONSHIP WITH WOMAN CONSENSUAL, DEFENCE TELLS TRIAL

A lawyer for a retired RCMP inspector accused of sexually assaulting a civilian employee says the complainant consented to a relationship with his client. David Butcher told provincial court the woman was motivated by financial gain when she said Tim Shields, pictured, kissed and groped her in a unisex washroom at the department’s British Columbia headquarters in 2009. Butcher says there’s no basis for the Crown’s argument Shields abused his position of authority to coerce the woman, whose name is under a publication ban. Shields was suspended with pay in May, 2015, in the middle of a code of conduct investigation and left the RCMP later that year before being charged with sexual assault in May, 2016. Shields, who was the Mounties’ media spokesman in B.C., has pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual assault.