Canada - BC coroner charged with indignity to female remains

Coroner charged with indignity to female remains



http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2010/10/07/15616406.html

A former B.C. coroner is facing four charges for the alleged improper examination of two female homicide victims.

Kenneth Glen Mattinson, 61, of Chilliwack, B.C., was arrested Tuesday following an investigation into allegations of inappropriate examinations of bodies in the lower mainland, Langley RCMP said in a release on Thursday.

Mattinson was charged Wednesday with two counts of offering an indignity to human remains and two counts of breach of trust by a public officer, police said. He has been released and is scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 21.

Police said an investigation was launched in March 2009 after a forensic officer at a homicide scene in Langley noticed "what appeared to be a pattern of questionable and possibly criminal behaviour by the coroner," police said.

Mattinson retired when the investigation was launched.

The charges relate to an examination of a Coquitlam victim on Feb. 3, 2009, and a Langley victim on March 14, 2009, police said. In both cases, the bodies were female victims of homicides and involve "alleged criminal behaviour in the manipulation of the bodies," police said.

Sgt. Peter Thiessen said RCMP will not be releasing further details about what was done to the bodies out of respect to the victims' families.

"I can't imagine how the families would feel, after the murders of their loved ones, about unsettling new allegations such as these," Thiessen said

The mind reels. I actually appreciate RCMP being closed mouthed.

Heavens!

The thought that comes to mind is, if he is guilty of this with two, I would bet these were not the only incidents.

Oh in the name of anything and all that is holy - WTH?!?!?

January 2013:

A B.C. coroner who retired after police began investigating the “manipulation” of two female murder victims in 2009 had half of his charges dropped at the end of a preliminary inquiry Wednesday in Provincial Court...

[RCMP Sgt. Peter Thiessen said] "The courts made a decision that the evidence, at this point, didn’t support the charges.”

Click to expand...

http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/2013/01/0...lation-allegations-dropped-against-ex-coroner

Jan 2014:

Mattinson was ordered to stand trial on the charges in the Lamoureux case, but after considering the evidence from the preliminary inquiry and the fact that at the time of the alleged offence the B.C. Coroners Service had a policy allowing head-to-toe examination of a body at the scene by the coroner, Crown decided last week to stay the charges.

"While it may have been conducted in what appeared to be an insensitive manner ... it was not conduct that the Crown could prove was criminal," [Crown spokesman Neil] MacKenzie said.

Click to expand...

http://www.canada.com/story.html?id=1c9fa17e-5c0a-4ffa-baa7-aec09aa68d4e

I think that ALL facilities where humans are warehoused should be littered with security cameras.

Attack on the Person by People previously trusted to care, are either skyrocketing or we are just finding out about them.

Hospitals need security cameras in every room. So it appears do Coroners Offices.

I tell you, in a busy hospital or morgue- if someone's creeping with the corpses the Security must be pretty much non existent.

Think about it - the offender has to be alone and unsupervised for extended periods of time. Repeatedly.

We all have Bosses so why was this guy able to abuse for so long, undetected?

Because his Boss was also looking the other way. Bosses, whoever. Someone up the chain is Also Asleep at the wheel.

I think you hit on the problem SapphireSteel - no supervision and somewhat known among this portion that are also officers of the court. Imo, that is why the Crown declined to prosecute. The can of worms would be more than the public could tolerate.

It was cowardly not to proceed imo. No one was served.