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Former cop gets 16 months for sex assaults

By: Mike McIntyre

Posted: 09/13/2012 10:27 AM | Comments: 0

A former Winnipeg police officer is headed to jail for sexually assaulting 11 young women whom he persuaded to model for his off-duty photography business.

Richard Dow, 57, hung his head Thursday after learning his bid for a conditional sentence had been rejected.

Queen's Bench Justice Chris Martin ordered Dow to spend 16 months behind bars for what he called "humiliating and demeaning" acts.

Martin denied the Crown's request for a 5-year sentence.

Dow pleaded guilty earlier this year to 11 counts of sexual assault involving women in their late teens or early twenties. The Crown dropped additional charges involving seven other complainants.

All of the crimes occurred between 2001 to 2005. Dow was still an officer at the time.

Dow took advantage of aspiring models who agreed to pose for photos but were then touched by him in places such as their breasts or thighs without their consent.

In at least two cases, court heard, the women said he touched their vaginal area without permission.

In one case, Dow went up to a 19-year-old girl and her mother in a mall, saying he was a police officer. The 19-year-old agreed to be photographed by Dow and her mother came with her, but on an occasion when she came alone in 2005, Dow squeezed her breast while she posed in a bikini.

In another case in 2003, Dow suggested nude photos to an 18-year-old girl posing for him and then straddled her as she lay on her stomach and massaged her.

Another case happened in 2004, after Dow and his daughter met an 18-year-old girl at a local restaurant and told her he was a photographer. During a later photo shoot, the girl said Dow told her she could be in magazine and rubbed oil all over her body.

By September 2006, police had announced Dow, who had 18 years on the job, had been placed on paid administrative leave for accusations of sexual assault, and he later retired.

www.mikeoncrime.com

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