The lawyer for a suspended RCMP officer accused of possessing child pornography has taken exception to a detective sergeant who was called as an expert witness by the Crown.
Defence attorney Mark Brayford accused Det.-Sgt. Darren Parisien of being antagonistic and condescending toward his client, Aiden Pratchett, during an interrogation on Dec. 22, 2014, before Pratchett was officially charged.
Parisien admitted on the stand that he takes an adversarial position during interrogations as part of his methods.
He did say the investigation by the Internet Child Exploitation unit wasn't a random witch hunt and they'd been positive Pratchett was their suspect.
Brayford argued Parisien was not impartial to the case as an expert witness is required to be.
After adjourning for lunch, the court ruled Parisien could be used as an expert witness since he had admitted his antagonistic stance, and during the interrogation Pratchett had not raised any concerns about Parisien.
The trial has previously been told that Pratchett, an officer at Fond du Lac's RCMP detachment, refused to give his computer password to investigators.
Pratchett told them he didn't want them to have access to his personal information such as bank records.
On Thursday afternoon, Pratchett's complex tech encryption was under analysis.
But one device discussed in court had files with what the Crown calls "the online fingerprint" matching files that have been marked as child pornography in their database.
Pratchett has maintained his innocence, suggesting that it was a third-party using his Wi-Fi.
(CKBI, CJLR)
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