(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)

KAMLOOPS –A prison guard told a Kamloops Supreme courtroom on Thursday morning that RCMP city cells were so full the night of a jail sex incident, two female prisoners had to share the drunk tank.

“We had no other choice; all the other cells were occupied,” said David Clark, a guard with the city.

Clark was working the evening shift of August 17, 2010 and left around 3:30 a.m. on August 18 – the day of the incident now before the court.

Cpl. Kenneth Peter Rick Brown is on trial for breach of trust after he, as the acting watch commander, and several others watched two female prisoners have sex on video and failed to intervene.

During his shift, Clark booked both women into cells. The women cannot be named due to a court-ordered publication ban.

Clark said the first woman was “intoxicated (and) a little resistant.” He recognized her from before and guessed he had seen her “at least six times.”

To fill in her prisoner booking paperwork, known to police as a C-13 form, Clark entered the woman’s name in the computerized system which auto-filled part of the form based on previous entries. This included the woman’s primary information such as her name, address and medical alerts.

“I would fill in the current information as much as I know,” said Clark. The rest of the C-13 was to be filled out by the arresting officer.

The medical alert noted the woman was “self-proclaimed HIV positive,” an entry dated from April 20, 2010.

Clark passed the form on to the arresting officer to complete, but said he did not verbally communicate the alert to anyone else.

Brown’s lawyer Glen Orris put it to Clark there are some prisoners who declare they are HIV positive in order to get a cell to themselves.

“They have done that,” said Clark.

When the second woman arrived in cells, Clark booked her in but had to fill out the form entirely; she had never been to city cells before.

Once the second woman was placed in the cell with the first woman, Clark said he monitored the two by watching the video feed and noticed they were very close.

Crown prosecutor Jas Gahunia asked Clark if there are any policies on what to do if prisoners are having sex in cells. Clark said it’s the guard’s duty to report all unusual behaviour to the watch commander. If it came to separating prisoners, Clark said a guard would need an officer to accompany them into the cell.

“(Would) two prisoners having sex in cells fall under unusual behaviour?” asked Gahunia.

Clark replied yes, but added prisoners having sex is “not common.” He recalled a separate incident when one male pursued another in the drunk-tank.  

Clark finished his shift before the women had sex, but said he noticed the two were very close.

“They were friendly,” said Clark. “They possibly might get too friendly.”

Clark said he notified the relieving guard of the two women.

The trial is expected to conclude next week.

To contact a reporter for this story, email gbrothen@infotelnews.ca, or call 250-319-7494. To contact the editor, email mjones@infotelnews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

News from © iNFOnews, 2014