4 British Navy sailors charged in alleged Shearwater sexual assault

HALIFAX – Four members of the British Royal Navy have been charged in relation to an alleged group sexual assault at Shearwater.

Craig Stoner, Darren Smalley, Joshua Finbow and Simon Radford have each been charged with one count of sexual assault.

The incident allegedly took place last Friday at 12 Wing Shearwater, according to Major Yves Desbiens, a senior public affairs officer with the Canadian Forces.

Desbiens said military police on the base received a sexual assault complaint that same day.

The four men were arrested Thursday night, said Desbiens.

He said the alleged victim, which is protected under a publication ban, is female and is a civilian and not a member of the Canadian Forces. It isn’t known if she required medical attention.

The men appeared in Dartmouth court Friday afternoon.

Crown Attorney Scott Morrison said the four men are in town as part of a hockey team. He said they were participating in a tournament with local Armed Forces personnel.

The men will remain in custody over the weekend and will be back in court Monday morning.

Kristen Pilotte, the officer commanding of the Atlantic region of the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service, said there are 20 investigators working on the case.

“It is very unique and particularly disturbing,” she said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It is very unique and particularly disturbing," she said.

“We’ve committed basically our whole detachment to this file.”

The Crown has to determine whether they can be released and whether that would include allowing them to return to the United Kingdom, he added.

Asked about jurisdiction in the case, Morrison said the Crown has jurisdiction over all Criminal Code offences in the province.

“There may be a mechanism where the British military could take jurisdiction over this, but my understanding is that the province of Nova Scotia has jurisdiction,” he said.

“Our position at this point is that they have to stay in Canada. They can’t leave the country.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "There may be a mechanism where the British military could take jurisdiction over this, but my understanding is that the province of Nova Scotia has jurisdiction," he said.</p><p>"Our position at this point is that they have to stay in Canada. They can't leave the country."

The U.K. Ministry of Defence released the following statement to Global News: “The Royal Navy takes allegations of this nature very seriously, however as legal proceedings continue it would be inappropriate to comment further.”

– with files from Canadian Press, Mayya Assouad and Rhonda Brown