In a Yellowknife courtroom, the trial commenced for a Canadian Armed Forces reservist accused of multiple sexual assault and child exploitation charges. Craig Scott Routery, 62, a former warrant officer with the 1 Canadian Ranger Patrol Group in Yellowknife, entered a not guilty plea on the first day of the four-day judge-alone trial. Routery was apprehended on July 8, 2024, during a youth training session in Whitehorse.
The charges against Routery, which include sexual assault, child luring, making sexually explicit material available to a child, and possession of child pornography, arose from an investigation by the RCMP Internet Child Exploitation unit. Allegations suggest that Routery engaged in online communication and inappropriate sexual activity with a minor in the N.W.T.
During the trial, it was revealed that RCMP investigators searched Routery’s residence post-arrest and confiscated a laptop and various electronic storage devices containing child pornography. The Crown provided binders with chat logs, text messages, and digital images as evidence.
The court heard from the complainant, a minor at the time of the alleged incidents, who testified that communication with Routery originated on an adult networking site in late 2022 or early 2023. The complainant, who initially misrepresented his age as 18, stated that the other user displayed increased interest upon learning his true age of 15. Subsequently, a physical meeting was arranged in early 2023 in a Yellowknife school parking lot, where an alleged sexual encounter occurred inside a vehicle.
The online profile used to arrange the meeting was traced back to Routery’s email address, as confirmed by Crown evidence. Although the complainant identified the person in the vehicle as the profile owner, he acknowledged the absence of facial photos on the profile, only body images. In court, the complainant expressed uncertainty in definitively identifying Routery as the individual in the vehicle.
The trial will resume on Wednesday, with the defense slated to cross-examine the complainant.