A third party has been brought in to look at how Prince George RCMP handled a homicide after a B.C. Supreme Court Justice criticized police procedure in the case.
The Officer in Charge of the Forensic Identification Services for B.C. has been asked to review the case, Prince George RCMP Cpl. Craig Douglass said Friday.
In finding Patrick Mathewsie not guilty Tuesday of manslaughter in the July 2010 death of Sylvain Victor Roy, Justice Glen Parrett questioned RCMP's decision to leave Roy's body out overnight and to handcuff Mathewsie when found passed out at the scene. The judge also noted poor handling of a blood sample and an 18-month delay in getting fingernail clippings taken at the scene to a laboratory for analysis.
Parrett also said RCMP interviewed witnesses within listening distance of each other, failed to adequately comb the field at 17th and Winnipeg where Roy's body was found, recorded Mathewsie's mutterings when taken to hospital without his permission, altered the scene before gathering evidence by handcuffing Mathewsie and failed to get enough photographic evidence.
Douglass could not say how long the process will take.
