Former RCMP officer Tim Shields found not guilty of sexual assault
Posted December 20, 2017 10:37 am.
Last Updated December 20, 2017 4:25 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – A provincial court judge has found former British Columbia RCMP inspector Tim Shields not guilty of sexual assault.
Shields, who was a high-profile spokesman for the RCMP, was accused of sexually assaulting a civilian employee in a washroom at the force’s headquarters in 2009.
The complainant, who cannot be identified because of a publication ban, told the trial that Shields led her to the unisex washroom before kissing and groping her.
Shields told the trial the woman enthusiastically participated in sex acts and then accused him of sexual assault.
According to the judge, both Shields and the woman presented very different accounts of what happened in the washroom that day, but found both their stories plausible. He stressed the difference between credibility and reliability different times in reading his verdict.
While the judge did not believe evidence the woman had brought the case forward for financial gain, he said she presented poorly and as a unreliable witness with significant gaps in her memory of the encounter.
He recalled how the woman forgot she filed for bankruptcy in the 90s, to which she responded ‘Oh my God, that was for student loans.’
Dan McLaughlin with the Crown says they didn’t get the verdict they wanted, but would not comment on the judge’s reasons.
“We’ll be reviewing the decision carefully in the days that follow, to decide the next steps going forward. And that will include considering whether appropriate grounds exist for an appeal.”
Shields was charged in May 2016, five months after he retired following a suspension in the middle of a code of conduct investigation.
The Crown has 30 days to decide if it will appeal and isn’t ruling that possibility out.
