:format(webp)/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/canada/2023/01/23/nicole-chan-was-frustrated-by-handling-of-sex-assault-case-before-suicide-off)
BURNABY, B.C. – A person of the last users of the Vancouver Law enforcement Office to see Const. Nicole Chan before her suicide mentioned Chan was indignant about the procedure of her grievance that a co-worker was extorting her for sex.
Supt. Shelley Horne instructed a coroner’s inquest Monday that she spoke to Chan at Vancouver General Medical center the day ahead of she died.
“She was discouraged for the reason that she felt that it was unfair that she was not able to do the job and Dave Van Patten was in a position to preserve his occupation,” Horne said. “She (considered that) if it was a member of the community that he had carried out this to that he would have lost his position.”
The inquest listened to that Chan was arrested and brought to the clinic beneath the Mental Health and fitness Act.
Jennifer Chan explained to the inquest previously Monday that her sister’s mental wellness problems stemmed from sexual assault and extortion by her co-employee, Sgt. David Van Patten, culminating in her suicide.
“I may well be paraphrasing but in my brain I considered an officer was blackmailing her to have intercourse with her in essence, and I understood that the officer was in HR,” she stated.
Chan claimed her sister Nicole struggled with nervousness and depression just after she complained to the law enforcement chief in 2017 about inappropriate interactions that she had with two senior officers.
“She really needed to get again to do the job and get wholesome once more, into a mental point out exactly where she could go again to perform,” Chan informed the inquest Monday.
Horne claimed in her testimony that she fulfilled Nicole Chan in Oct 2017, when she labored in the sexual intercourse crimes unit. She claimed she interviewed Chan about the issues she had designed against Van Patten.
Horne saidChan elevated considerations about being “manipulated or coerced” into owning sexual intercourse with him and about how her file was becoming managed by the department’s human methods section, the place Van Patten labored.
She claimed Chan advised her that Van Patten had taken a screen recording of an additional member’s cell phone and threatened to deliver the online video to Chan’s husband. Horne did not demonstrate the contents of the video at the inquest.
Chan was distressed about the recording and went to Van Patten’s apartment in New Westminster to communicate to him about it, Horne testified.
“When she acquired there, she said Dave explained to her that he wanted to experience near to her and that they necessary to have sexual intercourse,” Horne advised the inquest. “So, Nicole advised me that she experienced sexual intercourse with him, but that she truly felt disgusted by it, but felt that she had no actual possibility but to do that.”
Horne said Chan explained to her that she was anxious about Van Patten’s means to harm her profession, so they ongoing the sexual relationship.
“She was determined to get into the emergency response section and she felt that Dave was assisting her with that and that it would impact her career negatively if that relationship broke down.”
Chan informed the coroner’s jury that her sister as “very formidable.” She explained Nicole experienced joined the Vancouver Police Department to “speak up for victims,” but that she felt other officers could no extended want to work with her right after she built the complaint.
She said her sister felt aimless about where her lifestyle was headed right before her loss of life, that her job had stalled and she experienced no other task potential customers. She additional that her sister was hired by the department when she was “just 19 several years old.”
“She felt that she could not do just about anything else since she stopped education as soon as she acquired hired by the VPD,” Chan said.
Nicole Chan was on worry depart from the Vancouver Police Department when she died.
A civil lawsuit submitted on behalf of Chan’s family members final yr promises she died all through a intense psychological wellbeing disaster immediately after getting “extorted” by an officer to continue on a sexual connection.
The motion was filed towards the B.C. federal government, the City of Vancouver, the Vancouver Police Board, the police department, its union and four officers. Nevertheless, a discover of discontinuance was filed in the situation in September relating to 1 of the officers.
None of the allegations have been demonstrated in court docket.
The assertion of declare says B.C.’s law enforcement complaints commissioner requested the New Westminster Law enforcement Office to look into the promises and it advised prices towards Van Patten.
The lawsuit states the Crown prosecution company later on explained it would not go after a cost.
The lawsuit, filed very last January, suggests Chan provided an effect assertion to the Office environment of the Law enforcement Criticism Commissioner just a few months right before she died.
“She’s really just form of pleading for justice,” Jennifer Chan informed the inquest, summarizing the statement.
“It outlines that she was struggling from psychological health and fitness issues, and (it) mainly adjusted her as a person,” Chan reported. “She thinks it stems from sexual assault within David (Van Patten’s) condominium, and she’s not able to develop and retain personalized interactions for the reason that of that.”
She reported her sister was “very dissatisfied with the total process” and experienced been actively in search of psychological overall health therapy.
“The conclusion wasn’t what she experienced hoped for, so she was experience extremely defeated and did not have considerably to search ahead to in the long term,” she claimed.
When the coroner announced an inquest would be held, it claimed the jury would make tips and be certain general public assurance that the circumstances in the demise will not be disregarded, hid or dismissed.
— By Brieanna Charlebois in Vancouver
This report by The Canadian Press was to start with revealed Jan. 23, 2023.
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