Warning: This article contains details that may be disturbing to readers. All remaining criminal charges against a former Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer accused of historical sexual assaults have been dropped by the Crown. Theo Oderkirk, 51, had been accused of a total of 14 charges by two complainants in separate cases, with all charges either stayed or withdrawn by the prosecution. Oderkirk, who resigned from the OPP in September after 23 years of service, had separate historical assault charges stayed last month by the Crown stemming from allegations from a different complainant. Defence lawyer Alexa Banister-Thompson told court the historical assault charges against Oderkirk were stayed because the Crown failed to provide disclosure materials to the defence that it had in its possession for months. Oderkirk spent about eight months in jail until his release following a bail review, days prior to his previously scheduled trial. His lawyer told the court the Crown’s office should not have taken 21 months to withdraw the charges against her client, saying the defence raised significant concerns from the outset about the “credibility and reliability of the complainant and her motive to fabricate.” The Crown revealed Friday morning that it had no reasonable prospect of conviction following a review of the evidence in the historical sexual assault case against Oderkirk. Banister-Thompson said her client spent eight months in solitary confinement and “in a moment of despair” resigned from the OPP so he could afford legal fees with his two outstanding trials. The defence reiterated Oderkirk would have been acquitted of all 14 charges in trial. “Today’s withdrawal brings an end to the criminal proceedings, but it does not restore what Mr. Oderkirk has lost in the meantime,” said Banister-Thompson. Oderkirk told CTV News that 19 charges against him “never saw the inside of a courtroom.” “The last two years have taken an enormous toll on me physically, emotionally, and financially,” said Oderkirk in a statement to CTV News following the withdrawal of charges. “There are things that happened during this process that I will carry with me the rest of my life.” Oderkirk had a checkered past as a police officer, which included several misconduct charges under the Police Services Act. “Today brings an end to a chapter that has taken so much from me, but I refuse to let these allegations define who I am or what comes next,” said Oderkirk. Publication bans protect the identities of the complainants from being revealed including the nature of their relationship to Oderkirk. In August, a Perth judge found Oderkirk guilty of two counts of breaching an earlier release by failing to abide by a non-communication order. He was given a conditional discharge and three years of probation. Oderkirk said he looks forward to “putting this chapter” behind him and building his future rather than continuing to defend himself against “false allegations” from his past.
