Former VPD detective in court for breaching sex offender orders

Disgraced former Vancouver police detective James Fisher was in Port Coquitlam provincial court on Wednesday to be sentenced for failing to comply with an order imposed on him as a registered sex offender.

A condition of the order requires Fisher to report to the national sex offender registry when he takes on employment or volunteer positions.

But in June of 2023 he did not report within the required time frame when he was recruited by his son to help teach canoeing on three occasions at the Loon Lake outdoor camp in Maple Ridge.

According to an agreed statement of fact, Fisher was arrested at his home after a Vancouver Police Department officer observed him assisting with the lessons.

The judge has reserved a decision on sentencing until January. Crown is asking for a 60-day jail term while Fisher's defence submits a 30-day conditional sentence order is adequate.

In an address to the court, Fisher apologized repeatedly and said the breach wasn't intentional.

"In helping my son last minute. It did not occur to me to report to the national sex offender registry," he said. "I just didn't think, and for that, I'm sorry." 

Fisher, 67, was at one time a celebrated officer in the VPD's Counter Exploitation Unit. He retired in 2017.

In 2018, he was at the centre of a high-profile case in which he pleaded guilty to two breach of trust charges and one count of sexual exploitation. The charges related to incidents with two female teen victims of sex trafficking that Fisher had gained the trust of during an investigation into a notorious pimp and underage sex trafficking ring.

Fisher received a 20-month jail sentence, but several other charges, including sexual assault involving another two complainants, were stayed. The allegations behind those charges were never tested in court. 

Last year, after a four-year legal battle, CBC obtained thousands of pages of documents detailing the investigation into Fisher's misconduct as a VPD officer.

Fisher has denied all allegations except the one he has pleaded guilty to.