A former spokesman for the B.C. RCMP has been charged with sexual assault, authorities announced Tuesday.
The Criminal Justice Branch said the single count was approved against Insp. Tim Shields following an investigation into alleged sexual misconduct dating between 2009 and 2010.
Shields was heading the Strategic Communications Unit of the E Division Headquarters in Vancouver at the time.
Few other details have been released, but the alleged victim was a civilian RCMP employee from Shields’s unit, and she said the incident took place at their office.
After the charge was announced, Deputy Commissioner Craig Callens of the B.C. RCMP issued a statement assuring that all claims of sexual misconduct within the force are investigated “vigorously and fairly.”
“Charges of this nature against a police officer are disturbing and are even more so that it is alleged to have occurred in our headquarters,” Callens said.
“All members of the RCMP share the public’s concern and have devoted considerable efforts in the past number of years to addressing sexual misconduct in the workplace.”
The RCMP said it first learned of the allegations against Shields through a lawsuit filed by another employee in 2013, but an internal Code of Conduct investigation didn’t turn up sufficient evidence to proceed.
Another probe that involved major crime investigators was launched after new information came to light the next year, and it ultimately resulted in Shields’s sexual assault charge.
The high-ranking Mountie was suspended with pay in the midst of the investigation, in May 2015. In December, he resigned from the force.
Shields is scheduled to appear in court again on June 27.
