Three Toronto police officers charged with sexual assault in Barcelona

Three off-duty Toronto police officers have been charged with sexual assault while vacationing in Barcelona, an incident likely to escalate pressure on a police force already facing intense public scrutiny.

According to Barcelona police, the alleged assault occurred on the evening of May 13, when the three officers were traveling in a taxi with a sex worker in the city’s Ciutat Vella neighborhood.

The off-duty officers allegedly attempted to force the woman to engage in simultaneous sexual activity, according to the regional newspaper El Periódico de Catalunya. When she refused, the suspects allegedly became violent, insulting, threatening and beating her.

“One of the officers in the back allegedly sexually assaulted the victim, while the other allegedly punched her in the face, causing a cut above her eyebrow that required stitches due to profuse bleeding,” the newspaper reported. “Faced with this situation, the woman called for help from the taxi window.”

When plainclothes officers from Barcelona’s municipal police force stopped the taxi and ordered its occupants out, one of the Canadian policemen allegedly reacted violently, while another, who had allegedly struck the woman, fled.

“Two of them were arrested at the time, while a third fled. One of the two men arrested in Barcelona has been charged with sexual assault and assault, while another has been released on bail,” said a spokesperson for the Catalan police, the Mossos d’Esquadra. “The third man was arrested on the morning of Friday 15 May in Palma de Mallorca in cooperation with the Guardia Civil.”

Local media reports in Barcelona first alerted Canadian media to the arrests and criminal charges. The Toronto Police Service confirmed the arrests on May 18 but did not respond to questions about why it failed to proactively disclose the arrests by Spanish authorities.

A Toronto police spokesperson called the allegations “serious” but said the force would not identify the officers. The service declined further comment, citing the matters are now before the court.

The allegations come as the police force, the largest in Canada, grapples with severe reputational damage from recent corruption allegations.

In recent months, at least eight officers have been charged in a sprawling investigation for accepting bribes, aiding drug traffickers, leaking personal information to criminals who carried out shootings, and assisting organized crime members in a plot to murder a corrections officer. The investigation, dubbed Project South, has exposed the “corrosive” reach of organized crime into Canada’s largest municipal police service, the city’s police chief said.

None of the officers arrested in Spain has been publicly linked to Project South.

The Toronto Police Association, which represents officers, said it was aware of the incident involving three of its members but provided no further details.

“Given these charges relate to an off-duty incident, the Toronto police association has no further comment,” the group said.