A former Sunshine Coast RCMP officer has been found not guilty of sex crimes.
Gary Rudy Groenke, 48, was acquitted of all three charges in Supreme court in Victoria Friday, Feb. 8.
Groenke was on trial in Port Alberni last month for an alleged sexual assault of a minor, sexual assault and invitation to sexual touching. All charges were related to events the Crown said happened in 1991 in Port Alberni involving a young Sechelt boy.
The trial lasted six days, with the final day Friday in Victoria. Supreme Court Justice Dean Wilson was unable to convict based on the evidence presented.
"A lot of it had to do with the airline ticket," Crown Counsel Steve Stirling said Monday. Groenke had kept an airline ticket through all the intervening years indicating it was 1992 when the alleged victim visited him in Port Alberni. That meant the teen was 14 at the time and had reached the age of consent.
But the judge wasn't convinced there had been an assault at all.
Groenke had apologized to the alleged victim during taped telephone conversations played for the court. He believed that if he did, the police investigation would be dropped.
Stirling said Wilson accepted that the accused said he was sorry only because he was prepared to say anything to avoid having the charges go to trial.
