INSIDE THE NADON INVESTIGATION
Offences span decades, police allege
On six separate occasions, Dr. Vincent Nadon is alleged to have surreptitiously videotaped and sexually assaulted multiple female patients on the same day.
An examination of the charges against the Ottawa physician outlines the scope of what police allege occurred behind the closed doors of his office for more than 20 years.
Nadon, 57, a physician at the University of Ottawa Health Services, remains in custody awaiting a bail hearing on Thursday. He faces a total of 94 charges of voyeurism and sex assault.
An analysis of the charges shows that police believe Nadon collected a hoard of 39 secret recordings between Jan. 20, 2010, and Aug. 30, 2011, while working in a medical office at 100 Marie Curie Private on the campus of the University of Ottawa.
Nadon faces charges of sexually assaulting and surreptitiously videotaping 39 women in that time period, including recording and sexually assaulting two women on each of Jan. 26, Feb. 3, Feb. 8, March 16, Sept. 2 and Nov. 9, 2010.
The charges from that period allege that Nadon committed clusters of offences in short periods. He is charged with 20 counts of voyeurism and sexual assault between Jan. 25 and Feb. 24, 2010, including four charges on each of Jan. 26, Feb. 3 and Feb. 8.
He is also charged with another string of 18 offences between Nov. 9 and Dec. 22, 2010, including four charges on Nov. 9 alone.
The allegations against Nadon have not been tested in a court of law.
On Tuesday, Ottawa police declined to say why so many of the charges are related to alleged incidents in such a short time period.
Police opened an investigation on Jan. 16 of this year after a patient alleged that Nadon had secretly recorded her removing her clothes and had touched her inappropriately during an exam at a medical clinic on Rideau Street, one of four clinics run by the University of Ottawa Health Services.
In an “information to obtain” — a document known as an ITO that outlines the rationale for requesting a search warrant from a judge — police said the woman reported seeing an iPhone with a pink cover in a cabinet during the exam. At first she did not think it was suspicious, but while she was getting dressed she noticed that the camera had recorded her medical exam.
The woman confronted Nadon with the iPhone, according to the ITO, and later made a report to the clinic management and police.
Police laid a charge of voyeurism and another of sexual assault against Nadon on Jan. 18. After police made a public appeal for more women to come forward, another 10 sexual assault charges involving 10 former patients were laid on Feb. 21, including some going back more than 20 years.
On May 4, Ottawa police laid 43 additional charges of sexual assault and 40 counts of voyeurism.
In the ITO, investigators said cases involving voyeurism almost always involve more than one victim. It was “reasonable to believe the Dr. Nadon was surreptitiously recording multiple victims that reasonably expected privacy and that he keeps the evidence to review at later times,” said the ITO.
“Dr. Nadon is 56 years old and has been a physician for 31 years, where his patients were placed in a position where they would be naked in front of him. It is unreasonable to expect that this is his first offence,” said the ITO, referring to the allegations made by the patient on Jan 16.
In the ITO, investigators said it is common for voyeurism suspects to keep evidence of their crimes on external hard drives, and they believed Nadon had storage devices in his vehicles, home and office.
“In fact, the reason they record these types of offences is for them to review them after the fact, and often repeatedly.”
Investigators requested that the search warrant extended to what appeared to be a camper trailer and a mobile trailer on Nadon’s property in Chelsea, saying that a trailer or RV “would be a perfect spot for Dr. Nadon to store and view his videos in private,” according to the ITO.
Investigators also expressed concerns that Nadon had the opportunity to delete evidence between the time police were alerted to the patient’s allegations and Nadon’s arrest on the night of Jan. 17.
According to the ITO, around 11:10 p.m. that night, police arrested Nadon in his black Volvo in the parking lot of a Chelsea grocery store. He had been observed dumping garbage bags in a dumpster about 10 minutes earlier. The next morning, a police detective reported that one bag contained a severely damaged hard drive, said the ITO.
Police proposed executing the search warrant at Nadon’s home at 9 p.m. on Jan. 18 and appeared concern that evidence could be deleted or destroyed.
“Due to the sensitivities of electronic equipment, storage devices and the ability to remotely destroy evidence, it is believed that there is a risk of imminent destruction of property in this case,” said the ITO.
“That being said, I have no information to suggest that Dr. Nadon is a technically savvy individual. I have my belief that if evidence is destroyed or there are attempts to destroy it, members of our computer forensic unit will be able to recover some of the evidence.”
In response to questions from the Citizen about its response to the Jan. 16. incident, the University of Ottawa Health Services said it has a robust set of policies and procedures for the handling of complaints and incidents and has co-operated with police.
“The staff members involved in the Jan. 16 incident acted in accordance with all applicable policies and procedures and fulfilled their duties commendably while protecting the patient and informing her of her rights and further options for registering a complaint,” reads the statement.