Eastern Ontario OPP officer guilty of more assault charges

WARNING: This story contains graphic descriptions of assault and sexual assault.

An Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer already convicted of sexual assault, and awaiting sentencing, has been found guilty of nine additional violent offences connected to a separate court matter.

In the latest conviction, Jason Redmond was accused of 11 offencesrelated to incidents that took place between 2019 and 2021. He pleaded not guilty.

Reading from her judgment in a Brockville courtroom Friday afternoon, Justice Donna Hackettran through the evidence she heard in connection with the case, providing details for13 instances where Redmond was alleged to haveattacked a woman.

The incidents described by the Crown and witnessesinvolvedchoking, punching, pushingand causingthe woman to be cut by a knife.

The victim's identity is protected by a publication ban. She is not the same person connected to Redmond's conviction for sexual assault.

Hackett found himguilty of five counts of assault, three counts of assault causing bodily harm and one count of assault with a weapon.

Acquitted on 2 charges

Redmond, a Leeds County OPP officer, was also charged with failing to provide the necessaries of life and an assault that allegedly involved an infant. Hackett said she wasn't satisfied the Crown had met the burden of proof for those two charges, so he was acquitted on both.

The defence had raised questions about the credibility of the complainant asboth she and Redmondwere using drugs around the time of the attacks, but the judge determined the complainant was a reliable witness.

Hackett referenced photos the womanhad shared withthe court, which showed her with blackened eyes, bruises, red marks and what appeared to be dried blood on her face and body. Her injuries were"numerous," according to the judge.

There was a delay in the victim reporting the incidents to investigators, but Hackett noted Redmond is a police officer and that would"reasonably cause additional concern in this particular case about reporting him to his colleagues or associates."

"To report a peace officer to the police would be intimidating for anyone," Hackett said.

On paid leave from OPP since 2015

Redmond was previously convicted ofdrug trafficking in 2018,but receivedone year of probation and no jail time. He has been on paid leave from the OPP since he was charged in that case in 2015.

In an emailed statement, OPP Commissioner Thomas Carriquetold CBCthe force has been seeking Redmond's dismissal since his initial conviction fordrug trafficking.

The officerhas also been found guilty in an unrelated case for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman while recording it on his mobile phone in 2017.

Court previously heard from witnesses in that case that Redmond committed sexual assault, and filmed it, to show the victim "how easily she could be raped when she was drunk,"and "to teach [her] a lesson."

Sentencing for the sexual assaultis scheduled to take placeJune 16.

Hackett did not provide a date for sentencing on the assault charges, but the matter is set to be spoken to on the same date.