Mountie’s account of probe of domestic abuse by N.S. mass killer facing questions
Global News
The facts of the spousal assault are central to the commission's mandate to examine gender-based violence.
A former Mountie’s account that a 2013 call involving the Nova Scotia mass killer was about a routine “disturbance” — rather than a vicious domestic assault — is encountering contradictory evidence at a public inquiry.
The facts of the spousal assault are central to the commission’s mandate to examine gender-based violence and also provide insight into the RCMP handling of reports of the killer’s abuse of women before the April 18-19, 2020, killings of 22 people.
Brenda Forbes, a former neighbour of the killer, gave sworn evidence last week that she was told by an eyewitness that Gabriel Wortman pinned his spouse, Lisa Banfield, to the ground and choked her in Portapique, N.S., in the summer of 2013. She also testified that she spoke to two officers about the assault during a meeting in Debert, N.S., but “nothing was ever done.”
Her testimony has been set against an April 29 account from Const. Troy Maxwell, who retired from the RCMP last year. He has told inquiry investigators that in fact Forbes called to complain the killer was “tearing around” the community in a decommissioned police car.
Maxwell, who is scheduled to testify under oath on Tuesday, said if there had been any evidence of domestic abuse, Wortman would have been arrested.
However, in testimony Friday, Banfield told the inquiry Wortman didn’t own any decommissioned police cars in 2013 _ directly contradicting a key point in the former RCMP constable’s version of events. Moreover, the inquiry has collected evidence that the killer acquired his four decommissioned police vehicles from a government surplus site beginning in 2019.
Banfield also confirmed on Friday that she was choked by the killer on her front lawn in Portapique, and she said Wortman’s uncle, Glynn Wortman, witnessed the assault. Glynn Wortman has confirmed the assault in a statement to police. In addition, Richard Ellison, a former neighbour, has said in police interviews that David Ellison, his brother, and another neighbour witnessed the assault.
Banfield wasn’t asked on Friday about the date of the incident, and Glynn Wortman and Richard Ellison haven’t yet provided further evidence to the inquiry.
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