Police chief sent 'inappropriate as hell' messages to teen, but denies assault

The former chief of police for Bridgewater, N.S., admitted to police investigators that he sent inappropriate Facebook messages to a teenager, but categorically denied he sexually assaulted her, the Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Bridgewater heard Monday. 

John Collyer faces charges of sexual assault and sexual exploitation in relation to a complainant, who was 17 at the time of the alleged assault in 2016. The woman is now 20 and cannot be identified due to a publication ban. The trial is being heard by Justice Mona Lynch. 

The court spent hours viewing a video-taped statement John Collyer made to a trained RCMP interviewer four days before Christmas 2016. 

Collyer was arrested at home and brought to the Chester RCMP detachment to make the statement eight or nine months after the alleged incident in Collyer's car. 

The woman testified last week she was riding in the passenger seat of Collyer's car when he reached over and put his fingers inside her shorts and underwear, then into her vagina. 

'I can't believe I said that'

In the video statement, RCMP interviewer Brian Richardson told Collyer about the allegations against him. Collyer insisted to the officer he never committed those acts and he didn't understand why the complainant told police that story. 

The RCMP interviewer used a conversational interviewing technique to draw Collyer into talking about his relationship with the family of the complainant, which knew him well.

The interviewer also showed Collyer screenshots that the complainant's mother and the mother's friend gathered from the complainant's Facebook account, showing inappropriate comments Collyer made to the teenager. 

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

Other messages from Collyer included:

• "Hanging out in your room? If I was alone, I would get in trouble."
• "Love you kiddo"
• "You are hot"
• "I can send you dirty limericks"
• "Truth or dare might be dangerous in present condition"
• "Apparently you give awesome foot rubs"
• A poster stating, "Relationships last longer when nobody knows your business," with picture of man and woman

In the video Collyer said he did not remember making any of the inappropriate comments. Wiping his eyes, he told the interviewer he was "absolutely mortified" to see the screenshots.  

"It's inappropriate as hell, there's no doubt about that. I can't believe I said that," he said. 

Collyer eventually told the interviewer that he had a drinking problem and that he was seeing a psychologist for that problem and others. However he denied ever drinking around children or touching the complainant in a sexual way. 

"I can be a bit of a tool when I'm drinking, and say stuff that I regret, and I certainly regret that," he said. 

"But I did not, and I would not, sexually assault [her]. I would not put my finger in her vagina. I did not do that. I'm deeply ashamed about this. I've sought help for my drinking, but that's all I'm going to say about this. I did [send the messages] and I sincerely regret it."

Collyer thought accusation would end career

Collyer also told the investigator that he anticipated that the public fallout would be severe.

"This is probably going to end my career, whether I get charged or not," he told the investigator. He added that as a police chief, "reputation is everything." 

At the time of the police interview Collyer was already on administrative leave, after the province's Serious Incident Response team announced in August 2016 it was investigating him. 

Collyer was suspended in May 2017 after he was charged, and officially removed from the Bridgewater Police Service payroll on Aug. 11, 2018.

The trial was originally supposed to wrap up on Monday but additional days had to be added beginning on Sept. 9. 

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