Guard who watched women have sex in jail cell gets conditional discharge

KAMLOOPS, B.C. – A jail guard who pleaded guilty to breach of trust after watching two female inmates have sex in a Kamloops, B.C., cell has been handed a conditional discharge.

Forty-nine-year-old David Tompkins will also be on probation for a year and must perform 60 hours of community service.

His lawyer Julian Vanderwalle had argued for an absolute discharge, but B.C. Supreme Court Justice David Masuhara said Tompkins displayed insensitivity toward the women he was responsible for when he watched them have sex via video link in August 2010.

Masuhara disagreed with Vanderwalle that his client merely had a momentary lapse in judgment, saying Tompkins continued to watch the women engage in sexual acts, which were also witnessed by two Mounties who have yet to stand trial.

The women were both intoxicated and one of them later said she is HIV-positive.

Tompkins’ co-accused, Cpl. Kenneth Brown and Const. Stephen Zahara, will stand trial next September. (CHNL)

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