RCMP Watch

Moncton, NB (Times and Transcripts) - Two days in December have been set aside for the preliminary hearing of a suspended Codiac RCMP corporal accused of committing sexual offences.

Cpl. Alain Boulianne was not present in Moncton provincial court yesterday morning, but was represented by defence lawyer James Letcher. He appeared before Judge Anne Jeffries, while Nicole Poirier represented the Crown. Both Jeffries and Poirier are from outside the Moncton area, which is standard procedure when someone connected with the local justice system is charged with an offence.

Both sides of the case had already agreed on Dec. 10 and 11 for the preliminary hearing dates and Jeffries scheduled the matter accordingly. Boulianne has elected to be tried in Moncton’s Court of Queen’s Bench and the provincial court judge who presides over the preliminary hearing will determine if there’s enough evidence to send the case to trial.

At the request of the Crown, the judge also imposed a publication ban on any information that would identify the complainant in this case or any witness. Such bans are standard procedure in cases involving allegations of sexual offences.

Boulianne was charged on July 21 with two counts of sexual exploitation. One count alleges he touched a young person for a sexual purpose, while the other alleges he invited that person to touch him for a sexual purpose.

According to the Criminal Code, sexual exploitation charges are laid when the accused is in a “position of trust or authority towards a young person, who is a person with whom the young person is in a relationship of dependency or who is in a relationship with a young person that is exploitative of the young person.”

The complainant in this case is believed to be a girl in her mid-teens.

It’s been almost a year since Boulianne was suspended, with pay, from his duties as head of Codiac’s Traffic Enforcement Section. Codiac RCMP received a complaint against the member in September and asked the Saint John Police to investigate.