Vancouver Officer Charged with Incest & Sexual Assault

A long-serving Vancouver police officer has been charged with incest and sexual assault after being arrested by Burnaby RCMP officers Thursday afternoon.

The male officer was arrested in south Burnaby after a tip led Mounties to investigate allegations of sexual assault, said Burnaby RCMP Sgt. Jane Baptista.

Mounties started investigating the officer last week, Baptista said. The alleged sexual assault occurred between July 31 and August 1.

Charges of one count of sexual assault and one count of incest were sworn against the man on Friday morning.

Baptista said incest was a rare charge and involves sexual relations with a blood-relative.

"According to Section 155 of the Criminal Code, everyone commits incest knowing another person is by blood relationship his or her parent, child, brother, sister, grandparent or grandchild, and as the case may be, has sexual intercourse with that person. Brother and sister, respectively, include half-brother and half-sister," Baptista said.

"As you can see from that, it does not pertain to any specific age group, sex or anything else," she said.

Baptista said she did not know if the officer had any previous run-ins with the law.

The Vancouver Police Department immediately suspended the officer with pay according to the Police Act. The department has the option of suspending pay after 30 days.

The department's professional standards section will be shadowing the RCMP's criminal investigation.

"The VPD considers the nature of the offense to be very serious and abhors the actions attributed to this member," said Insp. Mario Giardini from the Vancouver police department's professional standards section. Vancouver police department officials would not say how long the officer had been serving or which division he worked in.

The RCMP are not releasing any further details about the identities of anyone involved in the case due to a strict publication ban.

"At this point we are not allowed to say any names or give any information to do with the people involved," Baptista said. "That's quite common in many, many sexual assault cases. It's usually in order to protect the victims and any revictimization of anybody associated with [the case]."

The male will appear in Vancouver Provincial Court in September.