Sex assault charges against cadet

dismissed
ALISON AULD The Canadian Press
Saturday, December 22, 2007 12:00:00 EST AM

Charges against an army cadet accused of sexually

assaulting two 14-year-old girls in New Brunswick
were dismissed amid a procedural mix-up involving
a military investigator and a Crown prosecutor, The
Canadian Press has learned.
The misstep means the alleged victims, also cadets,
will not be able to have their case heard in court, a
fact that has left the mother of one of the girls in a
state of shock.
I couldn't believe it all I want is the truth, said the
woman, who lives about 30 minutes outside Halifax
but can't be named to shield her daughter's identity.
I just want justice for her. The girls allege they were
at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown last summer
when a 16-year-old male cadet forced them to touch his genitals on separate occasions.
Since the allegations involved conduct on an army base, a military investigator was
called in. Once he determined there was enough evidence to lay charges, the matter
was turned over to a civilian prosecutor because the alleged victims were not military
personnel.
The youth later pleaded not guilty to two charges of sexual assault. A spokeswoman for
New Brunswick's attorney general said Friday the military's investigator should have
served five people including the alleged victims with summonses.
According to court documents, the Crown alleges the investigator failed to do so
because he was new in his position with the National Investigation Service, or NIS, and
didn't understand the summonses were his responsibility.
But the military has rejected this allegation, saying it was up to the Crown to indicate
who should be served, but that never happened. To say it's unfortunate is certainly an
understatement, provincial Justice spokeswoman Valerie Kilfoil said in an interview.
There was some kind of breakdown in communications or understanding of whose
responsibility it was to serve the summons.

The two charges were dismissed Wednesday in youth court in Burton, N.B., when the
public prosecutor was forced to concede he had no evidence to go ahead with the case.
The Crown is not in a position to proceed to call evidence on this matter today because
(of) what can best be described as a mix-up, Crown lawyer Paul Hawkins said in court.
Hawkins asked the judge for an adjournment, but his request was turned down. The
judge said the accused had a right to a speedy trial and any further delay would impinge
on that right.
A military spokeswoman in Ottawa said its investigator did everything he was supposed
to do in this case.
There's obviously a conflict here and we need to determine what the conflict was, what
the miscommunication was and we need to look at our processes, Capt. Cindy Tessier
said.
We need to determine what did go wrong here.
The NIS investigator, Master Cpl. Jim Rose, said he looked into the girls' complaint in
July after the girls began their six-week stay at Camp Argonaut.
Rose said he found sufficient grounds to charge the young man and he turned over the
file to the Crown, along with a list of potential witnesses.
He said he expected the Crown attorney to tell him which witnesses should be
summoned, but the call never came.