RCMP Watch

Joey Thompson, The Province

It’s legally OK in this country for a married Mountie to take part in a lunch-hour romp at his home with a mixed-up school girl less than half his age.That, dear readers, is why the Senate must get on with approving proposed federal legislation that jacks up the age of consent to 16 from 14.

In fact, former Parksville Const. Seth Paine would likely be behind bars today had the bill been in effect when he snagged a lonely and confused 14-year-old last year with his “one hot cop for you” billing on an adult chatline.

The two swapped e-mails and chatted — Paine used his RCMP address and cellphone — before the teen owned up to her age.The news made the 31-year-old father of two nervous, at first.

“It’s funny because we, the police, are always looking out for girls like you which older guys are after,” he wrote her. “You’re hot but 14.

“I do wish you were 18 to 19. The fact that you’re so young is playing with too much fire.”

But after weighing the risks, he proposed a nooner at his house just a block from her Grade 8 class: “OK. I’ll play with fire one more time and then I’d better stop,” he e-mailed her.

Six weeks after the rendezvous, the teen lost it. Realizing the relationship was going nowhere, she slashed herself on her thighs and told her parents everything, including the fact she participated in the sex willingly.

As the law currently stands, adults of any age can have sex with consenting teens 14 and older.

“However inappropriate the relationship may appear to those of us with a traditional view of the company a 14-year-old should keep, the association does not become criminal without the added ingredient[s],” a top Ontario court concluded in a similar case in1994.

The ingredients the judge was referring to are: a position of trust, a position of authority or a relationship of dependency.

To convict Paine, Victoria prosecutor Daniel Scanlan had to establish that the cop was in a position of trust and authority and/or had exploited the young girl or that she depended upon him in some way.

And that he couldn’t do.

Provincial Court Judge Michael Hubbard, sitting in Nanaimo a few weeks ago, said the evidence showed the cop had little or no control or influence over the teen, “that she was acting entirely voluntarily and of her own initiative.”

Since Paine had to be acquitted on Count 1, Hubbard ruled he also had to be let off Count 2 — using the Internet to lure a child for sex.

I can’t argue with Hubbard’s observations on the trust charge. The fact her one noon stand wore a uniform and worked at the Oceanside detachment did not affect her willingness to get it on — naivete, depression and a need for approval seemed the more likely motivators.

And that’s the point: No matter how street-wise pubescent kids act, most are emotionally defenceless and easily led by others’ opinions.

Crown would not have been compelled to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Paine exerted influence over the girl had the nation’s senators found time to adopt the age of protection revisions to the Criminal Code — they bump up the age of consent to 16 with a “close-in-age” exemption of under five years — before adjourning this week. Deliberations have now been postponed until they reconvene this fall.

Meanwhile, Scanlan says the attorney-general’s office is considering appealing the acquittals.