By Robert Champagne [1]
BELLEVILLE – A court martial of a retired air-force sergeant accused of several charges, including sexual assault, began Tuesday at Canadian Forces Base Trenton.
The charges against Raymond Euper were laid last May, when he was serving at CFB Trenton, by the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service. Euper retired this past February.
The charges are sexual assault, assault, ill treatment of a subordinate, and conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline.
They relate to offences alleged to have been committed against two members of the Canadian Armed Forces while Euper was deployed to Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, for Operation NEVUS in the summer of 2016, according to the Department of National Defence. [2]
Operation NEVUS [3] is an annual deployment of Canadian Forces technical teams to perform maintenance on the High Arctic Data Communications System [4].
The military investigation service was created [5] in September 2016 to combat sexual offences in the Canadian Armed Forces and the Department of National Defence. The service is part of the Canadian Forces Military Police Group, whose mandate is to investigate serious and sensitive matters.
Euper was born in Burnaby, B.C., but was living in Cold Lake, Alta., before being stationed at CFB Trenton.