Coroner charged with indignity to female remains
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2.../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
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