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No Evidence to Support Complaint of Perjury against CBRP Officer
The province's independent Serious Incident Response Team (SiRT) today released its report involving an investigation into a complaint of perjury made against Sgt. Ken Routledge of the Cape Breton Regional Police.
On February 3, 2016, SiRT received a complaint from a male who had been found guilty of sexual assault after a Supreme Court Trial in Sydney in 2015. The male claimed that during his trial Sgt. Ken Routledge, the investigating officer in the matter, perjured himself and committed an obstruction of justice during the trial. After receiving further information, SiRT opened an investigation into the matter on April 21.
The male alleged Sgt. Routledge committed perjury in relation to his evidence about how Sgt. Routledge obtained the male’s email addresses. These email addresses were used by Sgt. Routledge, together with other information, to gain court ordered access to the male’s Facebook account. An important aspect of the case were Facebook messages sent between the male and the female victim in the case, provided by the victim to the police. They contained comments and admissions in which AP clearly acknowledged his sexual relationship with the victim, him an older adult male, and her as a young girl. At one point he apologizes to her after she indicated that she was scared to live because of what he had done to her as a 12 year old girl.
A review of the transcript of the trial demonstrates that when asked about how he obtained the email addresses, Sgt. Routledge’s answer was unclear. However, he was asked no further questions by either counsel to clarify the matter. Sgt. Routledge’s file reports make it clear the emails were provided to him by the victim. It is obvious he had no intention to lie or mislead at the trial. In addition, it does not appear the issue of how he obtained the email addresses was important at the trial.
In the circumstances the investigation showed Sgt. Routledge performed a thorough investigation of a historic sexual assault. It also showed there is no evidence to suggest any perjury or obstruction of justice or any criminal action by Sgt. Routledge.
A complete copy of the report is available at http://sirt.novascotia.ca.
SIRT is responsible for investigating all serious incidents involving police in Nova Scotia. Investigations are under the direction and control of independent civilian director Ron MacDonald, who is solely responsible for decisions respecting the laying of any charge.
Media Contact:
Ron MacDonald, QC
Director
902-424-8400 (o)
902-718-9707 (m)
