Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Sex in cellblock alleged
Mounties accused of watching encounter
KAMLOOPS, B.C. -- Mounties in Kamloops, B.C., refused to respond to media reports that an HIV-positive woman had a sexual encounter with another woman in an RCMP holding cell as four officers and three municipal staff looked on and did nothing to stop them.
Global News reported the incident took place Aug. 18, citing an anonymous source.
The RCMP confirmed that seven people at the Kamloops detachment are under investigation over a "cell block incident" involving two people in custody on that date.
The allegations are the latest potential embarrassment for the national force in B.C.
RCMP said the internal investigation is focused on the "actions and or inactions" of four RCMP members and three municipal staff members.
Police also confirmed one of the two people from the cellblock is under criminal investigation.
Global reported the two women had an "intimate encounter" in the cellblock for as long as an hour.
RCMP Staff Sgt. Garry Kerr would not comment on the reports of sexual activity between the two people in the cell.
"The only thing I can say right now is they're all under Criminal Code investigation, obviously for criminal offences, and the RCMP members are also under investigation for what we refer to as code of conduct, which is like an internal system," he said.
No disciplinary action has been taken, although one officer has been removed from operational duties, Kerr said.
Two of the municipal employees were guards that work in the cellblock, and the third was "doing other duties," Kerr said.
The RCMP detachment has about 12 to 15 temporary holding cells, Kerr said.
The two people in custody were being held in the detachment "for a few hours."
The incident has the potential to be another blow the reputation of the Mounties.
Earlier this month, an internal Vancouver Police Department review of the investigation of serial killer Robert Pickton placed the blame for not catching him years earlier largely on the shoulders of the RCMP.
And, in June, former justice Thomas Braidwood released his two-year inquiry report into the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, which found the actions of the RCMP officer who Tasered him at the Vancouver International Airport shortly before his very public death were "shameful" and "not justified."
Also in June, a report on the probe into the 1985 Air India bombing, which claimed the lives of 331 people, accused the RCMP of serious failures in the prevention, and subsequent investigation, of the bombing.
-- Postmedia News
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 29, 2010 A16
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