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Crown to seek five years for Newfoundland officer guilty of sexual assault

Sept. 29, 2021 – A Newfoundland and Labrador Crown prosecutor is asking that a police officer convicted of sexually assaulting a young woman in her home in 2014 be sentenced to five years in prison.

Lloyd Strickland argued today that the breach of trust committed by Const. Carl Douglas Snelgrove of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary was a “stain on the entire administration of justice.”

Snelgrove was convicted in May of sexually assaulting the woman in her living room after he gave her a ride home from outside a St. John’s, Nfld., nightclub in December 2014.

Strickland read the victim’s impact statement this morning, in which she said she continues to have trust and intimacy issues, night terrors, depression and anxiety, and that she moved away from St. John’s as soon as she could in an effort to escape her trauma.

Defence lawyer Randy Piercey asked for a sentence of between 18 months and two years, arguing the victim did not actively resist the sexual activity and Snelgrove did not plan to have sex with her when he offered her a ride home.

In addition to the suggested prison term, Strickland asked provincial Supreme Court Justice Vikas Khaladkar to have Snelgrove registered as a sex offender and forbidden from interacting with the victim, and the matter was adjourned until Nov. 12.