Trial date set for man accused of defaming sexual assault victim
Videos were uploaded to social media by friend of convicted Brockville officer
The criminal trial of a Brockville man charged with defaming the sexual assault victim of former Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer Jason Redmond is scheduled for July.
Shane Link, who is from Brockville, was charged by police in September with defamation and for failing to comply with a publication ban after allegedly uploading a series of videos to the social media app Tiktok days after The Recorder and Times reported on Redmond's sexual assault conviction.
Redmond was convicted of sexual assault in early 2023 for raping an unconscious woman and recording it on his phone, and again in June for nine counts of assault against a different woman.
Link, who is a close friend of the former Leeds County OPP officer, allegedly uploaded the video to Tiktok in five parts, attempting to refute the facts of the sexual assault story. It was 40 minutes long.
Link's trial is scheduled for July 25, 29, and 30 at the courthouse in Brockville.
“I'm going to share some stuff that the paper did not,” Link appears to say in the now-deleted videos.
“I'm going to tell some opinions, show some screenshots, tell you some details that the three people in this situation will all be pissed off at me for telling you, but it's the truth.”
In the videos, obtained by this newspaper, Link referred to the victims in both cases by their first initials, showed screenshots of alleged text conversations with the sexual assault victim, and went through the newspaper article line-by-line giving his opinion on what happened.
A publication ban was put in place in both cases to protect the identities of the victims, preventing anyone from publishing information that could potentially identify them.
The OPP were made aware of the videos on March 31, 2023 – the day after they were posted to social media.
After their investigation, police arrested Link on Sept. 12, and charged him under Section 300 of the Criminal Code for defamation known to be false, and under Section 486.6 for failure to comply with a publication ban.
He was ordered not to communicate, directly or indirectly, with either of the victims, and not to
I'm going to share some stuff that the paper did not.
attend their places of work.
He was also ordered not to make any public or social media posts about either of the victims, or about any of Redmond's court proceedings.
The charges have not been proven in court.