Infantry soldier charged with sexual assaulting 8 women in Pembroke, Petawawa
Derrick Gallagher, 31, of Petawawa has been charged with eight counts of sexual assault and two counts of voyeurism in connection with attacks on at least eight women in Petawawa and Pembroke. He was arrested Monday and appeared in on the charges in Pembroke court Friday.
Photograph by: Handout photo , Ontario Provincial Police
OTTAWA — An infantry soldier has been accused of sexually assaulting and possibly drugging at least eight women in Pembroke and Petawawa during a period spanning almost seven years.
An Ontario Provincial Police source close to the investigation told the Citizen that some of the victims may not realize they were sexually assaulted because they were drugged.
In a rare move, the OPP released a photo Friday of Derrick Gallagher, 31, and the large and distinctive tattoos on his both of his upper arms.
Police said they are in the early stages of the investigation and don’t yet know where the alleged assaults took place.
What police do know is that the alleged sexual assaults occurred between January 2007 and March 14, 2014.
After a woman went to the police with information, the OPP began an investigation, which is now under the direction of Acting Insp. Peter Donnelly with the criminal investigation branch.
Police would not say whether the woman who went to them with information was one of the alleged victims.
Police arrested Gallagher on Monday and charged him with two counts of sexual assault.
The investigation expanded further after the man’s arrest, leading to more charges Friday.
Police have now charged Gallagher with a total of eight counts of sexual assault and two counts of voyeurism.
The Criminal Code of Canada says voyeurism is when a person “surreptitiously observes — including by mechanical or electronic means — or makes a visual recording of a person who is in circumstances that give rise to a reasonable expectation of privacy.”
Police would explain Friday why they have laid the voyeurism charge.
Gallagher made a brief appearance in court in Pembroke on Friday and is scheduled to return next Thursday.
Lt. Jean-Francois Carpentier, a military spokesman, said Gallagher enrolled in the Canadian Forces in 2005.
Carpentier said Gallagher is an infantry soldier with the 1st Battalion of The Royal Canadian Regiment.
Gallagher did one tour in Afghanistan from Sept. 19, 2008, to April 9, 2009.
Police in Saint John, N.B., where Gallagher attended high school, said officers would look for links to possible unsolved crimes using a national database, the Violent Crime Linkage System.
“If there are any unsolved crimes in this criteria, it would send us flags,” Henderson said. “So Ontario Provincial Police would enter all the data on Mr. Gallagher into the database and any unsolved crimes that match the M.O. ... it would flag those areas.”
Police are asking any women that may have been in the company of Gallagher to call the Upper Ottawa Valley OPP detachment at 613-735-0188 or 1-888-310-1122.
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-With files from April Cunningham
Ottawa Police detective Peter Van Der Zander who personally fabricates evidendce to justify NOT charging the most vioent of female offenders.
Then there is Child Protection Worker Phillip Hiltz-Laforge who like Van Der Zander fabricates evidence to protect violent female offenders and to remove children from fathers to place the with violent mothers.
When the matters go to court the worst of the worst abusers of children are Marguerite Isobel Lewis of the Childrens Aid Society of Ottawa who personally fabrictes evidence to obstruct justice and to place children with violent female offenders and to cover up the creeps in the world like Det. Peter Van der Zander and Phil Hiltz-Laforge.
If you have been a victims of these criminals, email info@OttawaMensCentre.com or call (613) 797-3237
www.OttawaMensCentre.com