RCMP Watch

Louise Dickson, Victoria, B.C. (Times Colonist) - He called himself “goodguy4444,” but the RCMP doesn’t see it that way.

The head of the Mounties in B.C., Deputy Commissioner Gary Bass, is trying to dismiss Const. Trent Richards of the Shawnigan Lake detachment for having sex while on duty and using RCMP equipment — police cruisers and computers — to seek out sexual encounters as recently as 2006.

“This is a case that is over the line and warrants dismissal,” said RCMP lawyer Tim Nixon, who told a disciplinary hearing this week that Richards used his position as a police officer to hook up and engage in sex while on the job.

While Richards, 34, doesn’t dispute the RCMP’s allegations of his conduct, he is fighting the dismissal.

The disciplinary hearing, which began Monday and continued yesterday at the Bear Mountain resort, heard that Richards had sex with four different women on 15 or 16 different occasions when he was working. Working alone at night in the small, rural detachment, Richards visited online dating sites such as plentyoffish.com, flirtbox.com and ratemybody.com to find dates.

In his online dating profile, Richards, who was engaged at the time, used pseudonyms and a false age and said he worked in Duncan. He identified himself as a good looking, athletic police officer who was interested in having sex with women.

“I have a great, well paying, well respected job,” he wrote under the name goodguy4444. “I wouldn’t change what I do for the world.”

In one posting, Richards displayed a picture of himself in his red serge RCMP uniform.

In another, he asked, “Up for sex with a hot cop?”

In one e-mail read aloud at the hearing, Richards wrote: “Anytime I’m working nightshift, I’d be willing to meet you somewhere. I’d be willing to use my cuffs.”

He suggested having sex on the hood of the police car. On two occasions, he used the police cruiser with flashing lights to pull over the car of a woman he was interested in.

Nixon told the three-member disciplinary board that Richards’s conduct is inappropriate, and that he betrayed the public trust and discredited the RCMP.

Richards’s lawyer, Richard Grounds, told the board the sex was consensual and didn’t involve alcohol. The women sought him out after seeing his profile, Grounds said. It also didn’t affect Richards’s work, he said. “There was no evidence he wasn’t available to answer calls.”

The investigation into Richards’s conduct began when a woman thought she might be dealing with a man passing himself off as an officer and contacted the RCMP.

Even though Richards was notified he was the centre of a code of conduct investigation, he continued to have on-duty sex, a seriously aggravating circumstance, Nixon said.

On Monday, Richards’s former supervisors, Staff Sgt. Doug Pack and Cpl. Scott Braes, testified they felt betrayed.

“Personally, I was disappointed, surprised and shocked,” Braes said. “Professionally, I was hurt and somewhat embarrassed, by the fact that I was his immediate supervisor and had no knowledge or even a glint this was ongoing.”

In emotional testimony, Richards’s father, Thomas, a retired RCMP officer, called the situation his worst nightmare.

“His mother and I are sadly disappointed, shocked and ashamed of his behaviour,” said Thomas Richards, who asked the board to give his son a second chance.

His voice breaking, Thomas Richards said he always brought his son up to be proud of the force. “And I’m very heartbroken, literally and figuratively. I had a heart attack last year.”

Richards himself apologized tearfully to the force, his detachment co-workers and his supervisors “for letting them down.” He also apologized to “all the women I’ve deceived.”

Richards said he was in counselling and wouldn’t repeat his actions.

The board has adjourned until 1 p.m. today.