Valerie Wilson, CanWest News Service
A former Vancouver Island Mountie was acquitted Friday of using the Internet to lure a child to have sex and touching a young person for a sexual purpose.
Seth Paine, 32, was charged after the constable had sex with a 14-year-old girl he met over the Internet in early 2006.
Judge Michael Hubbard, in handing down his decision in Nanaimo provincial court, said while Paine did not behave in a way one would expect as a member of the RCMP, in his review of the “evolution of the relationship,” Mr. Paine
had no control or influence over the girl, who’s now 16.
The judge also found that Mr. Paine was not in a position of trust or authority in regard to the girl, and that the computer was not used to lure her.
Mr. Paine was suspended from the Mounties after the charges were laid and later resigned.
Outside court, defence lawyer Ted Beaubier said his client is “relieved.” “It is a fact-driven case,” he said. “It was a unique set of facts that the judge dealt with. I think the judge made the right decision.”
He said the evidence in the case did not put his client in the category of a person of authority or trust, or that he exploited the relationship.
“It is not a situation where the law is necessarily sanctioning sex with 14-year-olds,” Mr. Beaubier said.
It is not illegal in Canada for a person to have sex with someone aged 14 to 18, provided that person is not in a position of trust, in a position of authority or provided the relationship is not exploited.
The prosecution’s main argument in the case was that Paine did use his status as a police officer to gain the girl’s trust.
In the Crown’s final submissions before the court Friday, prosecutor Dan Scanlan said a police officer is held at a higher standard than the ordinary person and he used that to build the trust in the relationship with the complainant.
“If you have that role in society it stays with you,” Mr. Scanlan said. “Mr. Paine made consistent and persistent use of his role in (society) to facilitate this relationship. He doesn’t get to switch that role off, in my submission.”
The Crown has not said whether or not it will appeal the decision. The girl, who cannot be identified, testified that in January 2006 she posted a profile of herself on an adult website designed for people “looking to sleep with each other.”
She said she responded to a user who called himself, “One hot cop for you,” and at first told him she was over 18, but later pointed him to a website with her correct age.
After establishing a time and place to meet for sex, she testified that on Feb. 21, 2006, she met with the accused and they had consensual sex. But in the weeks that followed, “things just kind of festered inside of me” during the weeks following her final e-mail contact with a Vancouver Island RCMP officer.
She eventually told her parents what had happened and the next day, they filed a statement with police.
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