Officer accused of lying in child porn case

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/08/2017 (2976 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg Police Service officer has been accused of lying during his court testimony to support a longtime friend who has now been convicted on child pornography charges.

A 52-year-old man was convicted Thursday on two counts of possessing child pornography after investigators found more than 850 images depicting child pornography on his laptop and discovered printed photos of naked children in his garage. A publication ban on the identities of the victims prevents his name from being published.

Police began investigating the West St. Paul mechanic in April 2013 after his foster daughters, 12 and 13 at the time, reported he had hidden a video camera in the bathroom and recorded the 12-year-old taking a shower.

Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Sadie Bond acquitted the former foster dad of the voyeurism and making child pornography charges associated with the shower videos because she said she could not be sure beyond a reasonable doubt that he recorded them. The only evidence about the videos came from the elder of the foster daughters, who said she discovered the camera on a bathroom shelf and deleted the recordings as soon as she realized what they were and told her sister about the camera.

Bond’s decision included criticism of WPS officer Kevin Pawl, a 28-year veteran of the force who testified for the defence about a conversation he claimed to have had with a co-worker about a decade ago that supported the accused’s version of events.

It highlighted the fact he didn’t report the allegations to his supervisor even though he worked in the child abuse unit when he supposedly heard about photos of naked children that were in the accused’s possession.

“I can’t identify a specific reason why officer Pawl would lie for (the accused) except that they were old friends. Nevertheless, I do not accept his evidence. It is simply unbelievable to me that he would recall such a routine conversation with a colleague from 10 years before,” Bond said on Thursday.

The girls’ 2013 complaint prompted police to search the accused’s garage, where they found photos of naked children in an oil pan, including a topless photo of one of the accused’s foster daughters in a “provocative” pose. Court heard the girl had taken the photo herself using the accused’s wife’s cellphone and had been disciplined for doing so. During a trial that began in January, the accused told court he printed the photo as evidence of the girl’s misbehaviour, which the judge didn’t believe.

He admitted he had soaked the photos in oil and was planning to burn them after he learned the girls had called police. But he denied a stack of photos of naked children was his, claiming he found them stashed in a used car he bought at an MPI auction years ago.

The defence called witnesses who corroborated the accused’s tale about the car, including Pawl, but the judge rejected their testimony as dishonest and suggested they were supporting the accused because he was their friend.

When he took the stand during his trial, the accused said he tried to report the child porn photos to police after he discovered them, but police didn’t follow up on the report.

Both Crown and defence lawyers agreed no such reports were received. He claimed to have spoken about the photos with now-deceased WPS officer Peter O’Kane around 10 years ago. O’Kane died in 2012. O’Kane and Pawl had both known the accused for years.

Pawl’s testimony, which the judge ruled admissible under an exception to hearsay law, established a key piece of evidence for the defence. Pawl was able to remember in detail a conversation he’d had with O’Kane in the police locker-room in which O’Kane mentioned the accused had told him about photos he’d discovered in the used car.

Although Pawl said the conversation had happened in 2007 or 2008 and he hadn’t made any notes on it, when he testified in March — 10 years later — he could remember it specifically “right down to officer O’Kane interrupting him to confirm that the pictures were not of adults and were of children,” Justice Bond said.

 

Pawl was working in the WPS child abuse unit at the time of the supposed conversation with O’Kane, but he told court he thought his colleague was going to do “some checks” on the previous registered owner of the car, and Pawl didn’t act on it himself. But by the time Pawl saw his mechanic in the summer of 2016, the officer was aware of the criminal charges the mechanic was facing and still didn’t mention his own knowledge of the photos with anyone in the police service or the RCMP.

He had known the accused had foster children and that they’d been removed from the home because of the allegations.

“Officer Pawl was challenged on his failure to follow up himself in relation to the pictures when he heard about them from officer O’Kane, and I do not consider this failure to be particularly relevant to his credibility. However, I do find that officer Pawl’s failure to discuss the matter with his supervisor or with the RCMP after (the accused) spoke to him in 2016 calls his credibility into question,” the judge said.

“At that point, he was aware of the charges against (the accused), (the accused) had made comments to him about the charges against him and was then approaching him for assistance in his defence.

There is nothing to say that a police officer cannot or should not testify on behalf of an accused person. Indeed, if he has relevant evidence to give, then he should. But to do so in a serious case where possession of child pornography is alleged without bringing it to the attention of his supervisor or the investigators seems improbable unless you want to keep your involvement quiet. For all these reasons I do not accept officer Pawl’s evidence.”

The mechanic faces a mandatory minimum sentence for the two convictions on child-porn possession. Defence lawyer Aaron Seib suggested he may launch a constitutional challenge against the mandatory minimum. A sentencing hearing has been set for Dec. 19.

katie.may@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @thatkatiemay