Former Cornwall cop gets jail

The former cop behind a paedophile investigation in Cornwall is in jail for refusing to testify at the public inquiry he triggered.

In 1993, Perry Dunlop began an off-duty probe into allegations of a Cornwall-area paedophile ring. Ontario Provincial Police launched their own investigation five years later but found no evidence of such a ring.

Still, the allegations hurt the city’s gay community as the line between homosexuality and paedophilia became blurred in the minds of some of the city’s residents.

A public inquiry was launched in 2005, but Dunlop has repeatedly refused to testify, and for that, he was arrested Feb 17 at his British Columbia home.

Dunlop was flown to Toronto for yesterday’s hearing, where judges told him he will remain in custody until Mar 5. On that date, he will be sentenced for contempt of court.

Inquiry lawyers are seeking a jail sentence of three to six months but say Dunlop should be freed if he agrees to testify, according to the Toronto Star.

“I will never walk into that Cornwall public inquiry,” Dunlop told the judges yesterday, reports the Star. “[I’d rather] go to jail.”