No charges against RCMP officer for kneeing man in groin in 2019, Manitoba's police watchdog says

No charges will be laid against an RCMP officer who kneed a man in custodyin the groin, causing him to lose a testicle,Manitoba's police watchdogsays.

The Manitoba Prosecutions Branch looked into the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba'sfileand determined no charge should be laid because the chance of conviction is so low, the IIU said in a final report released on Monday.

Fisher Branch RCMP had responded on Nov. 23, 2019, to a fight at the Percy Moore Hospital in the Interlake regionwhere a man was fighting with his girlfriend, the report said.

When police got there the man had driven awaywhile drunk.

After police arrested the man for impaired driving and assault, the man was aggressiveall the way to the RCMP detachment.

The man, who was in custody, told police he wanted privacy to use the washroom, but officers said he had to be monitored, at which point he pushed an officer, the report says.

When the man was told he would be charged with assaulting a police officer,and didn't followan order to lie down on the ground, an officer pushed him into the corner of the cell and reportedly kneed him once in the groin.

The officer, who didn't consent to be interviewed by the IIU, wrote in a prepared statement to investigators that he meant to knee him in the gut and didn't know he had hit the man's groin.

The man later complained he wasn't feeling well and was eventually transported and admitted into the Health Sciences Centre.

Doctors realized hisright testicle was ruptured and had to be removed.

The investigative unit said there was a delay in looking into this case because they couldn't reach the man who was kneed in the groin for more than 10 months after the initial complaint.