N.L.'s police watchdog says officer who resigned over sex assault allegations should have faced criminal probe

The province's police watchdog says a now-retired Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officer should have been criminally investigated for sexual assault in 2017, criticizingthe police force for not thoroughly lookinginto the officer's behaviour.

In a report released Thursday, the Serious Incident Response Team says it compiled a total of six incidentsinvolving alleged harassment or sexual assault by atleast one, but possibly two, unnamed officers.

The watchdog says it started theinvestigation in response to a flood of media coverage on several women who said they were harassed and assaulted by RNC officers, primarily in downtown St. John's.

On July 20 of last year, Joe Boland, who was chief at the time, told SIRT he was aware of several complaints against a now-retired member of the force.

SIRT obtained those complaints through a disclosure from the RNCshortly after, directing police to handover records of internal investigations into those allegations complaints of misconduct that never made it to the public eye, despite occurring five years ago.

That disclosure revealedone of the accused officers agreed to resign from the force in 2017, after a complaint was brought to the RNC's attention.

'Disturbing pattern'

In that instance, police conducted an internal investigation into allegations that the male officer kissed a woman he had picked up from downtown St. John's and tried toput his hand up her skirt.

The RNC determined that complaint "did not warrant a Criminal Code investigation," according to the report.

SIRT disagreed, arguing that the incident should have triggered a criminal investigation to determine if sexual assault and breach of trust occurred. The watchdog said it contacted the complainant, but the woman didn't want to pursue charges or participate in another investigation.

That same officer was accused of contacting another woman several times, which SIRT described as "extremely inappropriate."

"If the above allegations are true, it is clear that [the accused officer] has displayed a disturbing pattern of using his position to solicit sexual favour from women in the St. John's area most commonly in the downtown vicinity," wrote director Mike King.

Another accused officer, which the report says SIRT was unable to identifyand may be the same personas the first accused, allegedly pulled over while driving a woman home, andhintedthat he wanted sex, before she got angry and demanded he continue driving.

While King called each of the six incidents "extremely concerning," the agency stressed that it believes only one of the incidents involved a potential criminal offence.

"Simply put, without [the complainant's] participation in the investigation, we were unable to gather enough evidence to substantiate laying a charge in relation to that incident," King said.

"In my opinion, the RNC should have investigated this incident more thoroughly when it first came to light years ago. As outlined above, it presents a significant obstacle for an investigative agency when an investigation takes place years after the fact."

Without more information, the agency says it's exhausted all avenues to investigate multiple complaints of sexual misconduct against Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officers.

He appealed to the public for anything they may know about sexual misconduct incidents involving the force, saying the investigation, though stalled, remains open.

King declined an interview Thursday.

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