A B.C. Supreme Court justice must decide whether a videotaped confession by an accused after eight hours in a room with police interrogators will be allowed as evidence in the trial of a former Mountie charged with molesting teenage boys in Clearwater four decades ago.
Crown and defence lawyers are scheduled to complete arguments Tuesday about whether the videotaped confession should be used in the trial against Alan Davidson, who is charged with seven counts of sexual touching.
Seven teenage complainants have testified against Davidson, who was a hockey and baseball coach in Clearwater, as well as an auxiliary RCMP member, in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
About half were under the age — 14 years at the time — of consent when the incidents are alleged to have occurred.
Davidson would later become a full-fledged member of the RCMP, serving in Saskatchewan. He is also charged with sexual offences from his time in the Prairie province.
More than eight hours of videotape were played in court last week as Sgt. Darren Carr cajoled Davidson into unburdening himself to police after his arrest in 2014. A lawyer had already told Davidson to not say anything.
Carr testified police who arrested Davidson used a number of scenarios in an attempt to find out what occurred during the sports and camping outings.
Those included discussion of former NHLer Sheldon Kennedy’s stories of abuse at the hands of major-junior hockey coach Graham James. Carr also conversed with Davidson over the eight hours using the “conscience-based theme,” which involved telling the accused police had an overwhelming amount of evidence and then encouraging the interviewee to unburden himself to clear his conscience.
Defence lawyer John Gustafson noted the number of times during the interview when Davidson told Carr that his lawyer instructed him not to speak, as well as when he was not responsive and expressed tiredness.
But Carr said Davidson, a former police officer and a sheriff at the time of arrest, was aware.
“I had no concerns with Mr. Davidson’s operating mind,” Carr said. “This is someone who is sophisticated — at that time, he was a serving peace officer.”
The post Court to consider accused’s videotaped confession as sexual-touching trial continues appeared first on Kamloops This Week.