|
|
|
| NEWS > 05 March 2008 |
Other related articles:
Ethics complaint submitted aga
A woman who says she is helping Dalworthington Gardens Police Chief Bill Waybourn explore a bid for Tarrant County sheriff submitted an ethics complaint Wednesday against incumbent Dee Anderson.
Janette Kurban, wife of retired Judge Roy Kurban, alleges in her letter to the Texas Ethics Commission that Anderson has violated state election codes by failing to file campaign contributions and expenditure reports since 2004, a claim Anderson disputes. She also sent a letter to Tarrant County District Attorney Tim Curry on Wednesday stating that she believes that Anderson has committed seve... Read more
|
 Article sourced from
|
|
Globe and Mail - Canada
05 March 2008
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
|
|
Former police officer jailed f
TORONTO — Former police officer Perry Dunlop has been handed a six-month jail sentence for his refusal to testify at a public inquiry probing the institutional response to allegations of systemic sexual abuse in Cornwall, Ont.
“Mr. Dunlop's disobedience of the order was open, continuous and flagrant,” Mr. Justice Lee Ferrier told a Toronto court.
“Not only did Mr. Dunlop fail to appear as ordered, he publicized his intentions to disobey the order and attacked the integrity of the commission, bringing the administration of justice into disrepute.”
The civil contempt for which Mr. Dunlop received the six month sentence related to his refusal to testify at the commission on Oct. 9, 2007. His criminal contempt conviction refers to his refusal last month to comply with a divisional court order that he testify.
Mr. Dunlop can end his incarceration at any point during the next six months if he decides to drop his protest and testify. If not, he will be brought back to court and sentenced on the criminal contempt conviction.
Mr. Dunlop was a police officer in the eastern Ontario city when he began an off-hours investigation of an alleged pedophile ring.
A provincial police investigation, dubbed Project Truth, laid some 115 charges against 15 men but failed to uncover any evidence of a ring. Only one person was convicted.
Judge Ferrier said that Mr. Dunlop played a central role as a “whistle blower” and then confidante of many of the complainants in the Cornwall case, rendering his testimony of great importance to the inquiry.
“He has refused to answer questions because he has said he has no faith in the Ontario justice system or the mandate of the inquiry; he is a “scapegoat”; the process is a cover-up; he was forced to appear against his will; and he could add nothing to his “will...”
Speaking on behalf of Madame Justice Katherine Swinton, Judge Ferrier said that Mr. Dunlop multiplied the gravity of his disobedience by publicizing it in media interviews, orchestrating a public spectacle on the day he was arrested at his home in Duncan, B.C. last month, and continuing to denounce the justice system.
“One must not lose sight of the mandate of the commission – to determine what happened in Cornwall, including how institutions responded – as well as its ultimate purpose, which is surely the protection of children from sexual abuse,” Judge Ferrier said.
“Despite this, Mr. Dunlop continues to refuse to testify.”
A small band of vocal supporters - one of whom was ordered to leave the courtroom for interrupting the sentencing - later accosted lawyers representing the ministry of the attorney-general and the Cornwall inquiry.
“I hope you can't close your eyes for a minute tonight without seeing the faces of those pedophile victims in front of you,” one of them told lawyer Brian Gover, who represented the inquiry commissioner, Mr. Justice G. Normand Glaude.
The supporters complained that alleged pedophiles identified through Mr. Dunlop's research have been left alone by the inquiry while it is Mr. Dunlop who has been hounded for his testimony.
“By cracky, every pedophile in Cornwall refused to testify - and no one bothered them,” said Sylvia MacEachern, who runs a website focusing on the inquiry.
Mr. Gover told reporters afterward that the conviction and sentence were a very serious response by the justice system to someone who has thumbed his nose at its very legitimacy.
“Frankly, a consideration for counsel and the court is that no one wants to make a martyr out of Mr. Dunlop and his misguided view of his civic duties in not testifying,” he said.
David Humphrey, a lawyer for the ministry, told reporters that the government's aim has always been primarily to “convince or if necessary, coerce” Mr. Dunlop to provide evidence that the inquiry badly needs in order to understand the disturbing events that have taken place in Cornwall in the past couple of decades.
He said that Mr. Dunlop's steadfast refusal to co-operate with the inquiry has helped nobodies interests.
|
| |
 EiP Comments:
|
|---|
|
| |
* We have no wish to infringe the copyright of any newspaper or periodical. If you feel that we have done so then please contact us with the details and we will remove the article. The articles republished on this site are provided for the purposes of research , private study, criticism , review, and the reporting of current events' We have no wish to infringe the copyright of any newspaper , periodical or other works. If you feel that we have done so then please contact us with the details and where necessary we will remove the work concerned.
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
 |
Ethics in Policing, based in the UK, provide information and advice about the following:
Policing Research | Police News articles | Police Corruption | International Policing | Police Web Sites | Police Forum | Policing Ethics | Police Journals | Police Publications |
|
| |
|
