B.C. Mountie's appeal of sex crime convictions dismissed
B.C.'s highest court has dismissed an appeal by an RCMP officer who was found guilty of sex crimes involving teen girls, upholding his conviction.
Andrew Seangio was found guilty of seven counts of wilfully committing an indecent act and three counts of exposing himself to a person under the age of 16 when he was employed as an RCMP officer in Richmond. He was convicted after a trial by jury in 2022 and sentenced to 18 months in jail.
The decision in the appeal was handed down Thursday.
Seangio argued that the judge made four separate errors when instructing the jury but the B.C. Court of Appeal concluded that "the judge made none of the errors alleged."
In 2018 and 2019, Seangio drove up to students from York House School and Little Flower Academy – two private schools in Vancouver's Shaughnessy neighbourhood – then exposed his genitals, masturbated and left the scene, the court heard at trial.
He also exposed himself to two undercover police officers dressed as school girls.
At trial, Seangio was the only witness to testify for the defence, and he denied the allegations, saying that he had "never exposed himself or masturbated in his car," the appeal court noted.
Seangio is also facing three additional charges in B.C. – with the alleged offences occurring when he was on bail for the sex crimes for which he would ultimately be convicted. His trial for one count of impersonating a police officer, one count of assault, and one count of possessing a forged document with the intent to commit an offence is set for September of this year.
He also faces 37 charges related to allegations of sexual assault and voyeurism in Ottawa that predate the Vancouver sex offences.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Trump confronts repeated boos during raucous Libertarian convention speech
Donald Trump was booed repeatedly while addressing Saturday night’s Libertarian Party National Convention.
Grayson Murray, two-time PGA Tour winner, dead at 30
Two-time PGA Tour winner Grayson Murray died Saturday morning at age 30, one day after he withdrew from the Charles Schwab Cup Challenge at Colonial.
Family of toddler found dead at small-town Ont. daycare no closer to answers after year of investigation
A year has passed since two-year-old Vienna Irwin was found on the property of a home-based daycare in small-town Ontario, but her family says they are no closer to answers of what happened that day.
More seniors are using homeless shelters. Here's why, according to experts
One of the country’s homeless shelters has seen an uptick in the number of people through its doors, including more older adults over 50.
The death toll in Kharkiv attack rises to 14 as Zelenskyy warns of Russian troop movements
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Sunday that Russia is preparing to intensify its offensive along Ukraine's northern border, as the death toll rose to 14 in an aerial bomb attack on a large construction supplies store in the city of Kharkiv.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels freed over 100 war prisoners, the Red Cross says
The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen on Sunday released more than 100 war prisoners linked to the country’s long-running conflict, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
Man or machine? Toronto company finds a way to determine how real audio clips are
The Toronto-based research arm of life sciences technology firm Klick Health has found a way to analyze voices in a manner that’s so granular, it can tell whether it's a person or an artificial intelligence-powered machine.
No sign Canada has a plan to reach NATO defence spending target: U.S. NATO ambassador
The U.S. ambassador to NATO says she has seen no indication that Canada has a plan to reach the NATO spending target of two per cent of GDP on defence.
This type of screen time has the worst effect on kids: experts
According to some experts, there is one type of screen time that is continuously excessive, and it's having a severe effect on our children.