Computer error caused case to be delayed, dropped

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This article was published 29/01/2017 (3316 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg police cite a computer system breakdown for twice misplacing a report of a sexual-assault case over an eight-year period, a delay that resulted in an accused child sex offender walking free last week because the case took too long to get to court.

Police staff have learned from the errors but no individual police members have been officially reprimanded, said Winnipeg Police spokesman Const. Rob Carver.

“No one’s been disciplined because it didn’t involve somebody being really negligent,” he said.

Coun. Jeff Browaty, chair of the Winnipeg Police Board, said that he will be following up with Chief Danny Smyth to find out what happened in this case as well as what safeguards are in place to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

The accused man was facing charges of sexual assault, invitation to sexual touching, sexual interference and uttering death threats against his ex-common law partner’s daughter between 1996 and 2003, when she was between the ages of six and 12.

In October 2006, the girl, who was then 16 years old, went to police for the first time and in February 2007 a detective submitted an online report seeking a warrant for the man’s arrest. A supervisor was supposed to review the file and send it electronically to the police court unit, but the supervisor didn’t send the report, Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Robert Dewar wrote in a decision released last week.

The error wouldn’t be discovered until June 2013 when another police officer came across the unsubmitted report while searching the police database for background on the same accused, for a different matter.

A warrant was obtained in August 2013 to arrest the accused, who was living in a remote northern Manitoba community. But it simply gathered dust in their computer system for another 19 months.

“There is no record WPS took any steps to verify the address or to forward the warrant to Thompson RCMP, the detachment with authority over the community,” said Dewar.

When the same accused went to RCMP in March 2015 complaining he was a victim of an assault, the Mounties discovered the outstanding charges against him.

He was ordered to stand trial but, last week, the judge stayed the charges because the length of delay “is simply too long”.

The ruling is believed to be the first in Manitoba directly linked to the fallout from last year’s Supreme Court decision, which set out specific time parameters for criminal matters to be heard.

Winnipeg Police Services is taking the matter seriously, said Carver, the police spokesman.

“This case highlighted a systems and processes problem,” he said. “It really comes down to an error we realized could technicially be made and be missed, and have super-serious consequences. We’re working at not only altering the system, but making sure there’s a feedback loop to ensure that this can’t happen again.”

Carver said the WPS has identified the computer system breakdown that led to the error and are now examining their entire process, in detail. He added that it will take time to establish new procedures and policies, as well as do the necessary training. “We want to do it right,” he said.

When Carver was asked what message the WPS had for sexual assault victims thinking of coming forward, he acknowledged that everyone in the process, from medical examiners to police to lawyers, is human.

“And it sounds hollow, but mistakes are going to be made. And mistakes can be made at any stage. What we want to do is try our hardest to not only not make them, but to let people know that we are trying our hardest, and we never want to make a mistake. And when we do, we’re doing everything we can to attempt to fix it.

“What I want to say to anyone who is a victim of a domestic assault or a sexual assault, we put everything we can into these investigations,” he said. “Investigators put their hearts and souls into them, and no one wants to see it fail. Not just the victim, who is, of course, primary in this, but also the people attached who have huge dedication. Please do not let this ever change someone’s view that (going to the police) is the right thing to do, and that we want to be part of the solution.”

— with files from Mike McIntyre

jen.zoratti@freepress.mb.ca