RCMP officer's plea on sex crime delayed as defence awaits evidence

An RCMP officer accused of a sex crime delayed entering a plea on the charge Thursday while awaiting disclosure of the evidence in the case. 

Cpl. Jeremy Bastarache, 36, faces a charge alleging he made arrangements with a person for the purpose of facilitating a sexual offence toward a person he believed to be under 16 years of age. 

Bastarache, who was released on conditions after his arrest pending trial, was not present when the case returned to Moncton provincial court on Thursday. 

A lawyer there on his behalf, Adrian Forsythe, told Judge Luc Labonté that Bastarache's plea would need to wait for further information from the Crown prosecutor. 

Labonté was told the information should be provided in the next few days. The judge agreed to delay the plea until Oct. 3. 

The RCMP has said Bastarache has been suspended with pay. 

The alleged offence happened in the Shediac area between April 24 and 29. The charge was laid June 10.

An affidavit from RCMP Cpl. Jean-Sebastien Marcotte was filed in court in support of an arrest warrant in June and lays out what led to the arrest.

The affidavit states that the RCMP's Internet Child Exploitation unit received a referral from Australian federal police on May 27, 2024.

The referral said Australian police received a report from a website that one of its users "attempted to procure an underage female for child abuse purposes."

The affidavit said that while reviewing three images linked to the reported account, Marcotte and other members of the Internet Child Exploitation unit recognized Bastarache. 

The affidavit says the website account's IP address was linked to an internet account associated with Bastarache in Shediac River. 

The June affidavit says Bastarache had recently transferred from New Brunswick to work in Kinngait, a community of about 1,400 people in Nunavut.

Marcotte's affidavit says Bastarache was flying back to New Brunswick on June 9 as part of his relocation, with a stop in Ottawa, when he was arrested by the RCMP at the Ottawa airport.

The allegations in the affidavit have not been proven in court.

Defence lawyer Nathan Gorham previously told reporters that Bastarache would plead not guilty to the charge. 

"He's looking forward to having his day in court and to having the Crown and the court consider his account of the events and his side of the story on things, and he's anxious for the process to unfold," Gorham said in July.