Teen's mom found 'sexual' messages from Bridgewater police chief, trial told

A former Bridgewater, N.S., police chief accused of sexual assault sent "very sexual" Facebook messages to a teenage girl that were later discovered by her mother, his trial heard Tuesday.

John Collyer was charged in 2016 with sexual assault and sexual exploitation and is on trial in Nova Scotia Supreme Court. It's alleged Collyer touched the girl, who was 17 at the time, with his hand in a sexual manner.

The girl's mother testified that in the summer of 2016 she discovered a Facebook message thread between Collyer, who was chief of the Bridgewater Police Service at the time, and her daughter. It included messages she described as "inappropriate crap."

The mother, who cannot be named to protect her daughter's identity, had her daughter's Facebook password and often checked the account to try to keep track of her. She had become concerned her daughter was using the internet to talk to much older men the mother did not know, and that she sometimes went missing for hours.

One of the example messages given in court included a short video of a dog pulling at a girl's bikini top. The mother stated that a message from Collyer said: "I wonder if I could train yours to do that?" The family had a dog at the time.

Another witness, who was a friend of the mother, described the messages as "very, very sexual." 

The mother said she was surprised, angry and upset, and spoke to Collyer's wife about the messages.

A couple of days later, the mother said she received a text message from Collyer apologizing and saying that he did not intend to hurt her family.

The mother showed the Facebook messages to her family doctor. She later received a call from the RCMP and Nova Scotia's police watchdog, the Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT), asking about the messages.

She turned the messages over to a SIRT investigator, who testified in court that he recommended proceeding further and getting the services of a trained RCMP sexual assault investigator.

Admissibility of evidence

Lawyers spent part of the day discussing with the judge whether the content of the Facebook messages is admissible in court.

Defence lawyer David Bright argued that permitting the messages as evidence would create a predisposition of "bad character," and it doesn't follow that they are relevant to the acts Collyer is alleged to have committed.

However, Justice Mona Lynch decided to admit them as evidence. She ruled the messages shed light on the relationship between the accused and the complainant, and they would not threaten the fairness of the trial.

Outside of court, Crown prosecutor Roland Levesque said the messages are a key part of the Crown's case.

"We view it as being quite important," he said.

The case is set to continue for the rest of this week and next Monday. Levesque said he expects to call about 10 witnesses, including a series of civilians, the complainant herself, and the investigators who worked on the case.

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