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CONTENT ADVISORY

A BC RCMP sergeant who had a sexual relationship with a junior officer has lost an appeal to get his job back after he was ordered to resign.

According to a recently published Oct. 21, 2022, RCMP Conduct Board decision, Sgt. Will Turner lost his six-figure job with the RCMP in 2018 when he was found to have had numerous sexual encounters with a subordinate that "ceased to be consensual over time."

Sgt. Turner appealed the decision, filing almost 5,000 pages of material, however the RCMP External Review Committee found the original tribunal didn't breach procedural fairness and wasn't unreasonable, although there were lengthy delays in its decision to order him to resign or be fired was warranted.

The case dates back to 2014 when Sgt. Turner and an RCMP officer below his rank, referred to as Ms. A in the decision, began sending each other texts of a sexual nature.

The decision says Sgt. Turner had been in the RCMP since 2000 and was in charge of a cell block at an undisclosed RCMP detachment. While the decision doesn't give a location, it appears he worked in the Lower Mainland.

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Ms. A was a cell guard, and in the summer of 2014 the two had a series of sexual encounters.

The original 92-page decision goes through a play-by-play of the sexual encounters which started by kissing in the staff kitchen to Ms. A giving Sgt. Turner oral sex while they were both at work and in uniform.

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The sexual encounters took place five times throughout that summer.

"Ms. A accepted that she was fine with some of the kissing. However, when it started to get more aggressive and (Sgt. Turner) became more demanding, she then started to get uncomfortable with what was happening. In her mind, everything was getting too aggressive and out of control. At this point, she participated but not willingly," the original decision reads. "Ms. A stated that she felt like she allowed this to happen. She felt that she did not try 'hard enough' to stop what was going on. She noted that it took counselling for her to realize that this was not her fault."

By the end of the summer, after both parties became involved with other people, the relationship ended.

However, in the fall of that year, the two met by chance in the building's stairwell.

"Their versions of events differ, but they agree that Ms. A again performed fellatio on the (sergeant)," the decision reads. "Ms. A stated that the (sergeant) aggressively kissed her, pushed down on her head to bring her to her knees and asked that she perform fellatio on him, his penis already out of his pants."

Sgt. Turner stated that Ms. A initiated the kissing and "went down on her knees by herself." 

Following this incident, Ms. A told her supervisor who then reported it.

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Sgt. Turner was suspended and charged with sexual assault, although Crown prosecutors later stayed the charge.

The Conduct Board stated that while Ms. A willfully participated at the beginning of the relationship, her behaviour changed as he became increasingly aggressive.

"The Board concluded that, while the relationship began as a consensual one, this ceased to be the case over time," the decision reads.

The RCMP External Review Committee found that regardless of whether the events were consensual or not, Sgt. Turner should not have become sexually involved with a person he held a position of authority over.

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Ultimately, the Review Committee stood by the original decision to get rid of the sergeant and concluded he'd engaged in discreditable conduct likely to discredit the RCMP.

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