NWT - RCMP Const. Colin Allooloo has been found guilty of pepper-spraying a youth in police custody three years ago in Fort Simpson.

Const. Colin Allooloo was convicted Wednesday in NWT Supreme Court of assault with a weapon. He was found guilty of pepper-spraying a youth in police custody while in Fort Simpson. - NNSL file photo

Supreme Court Justice Leigh Gower convicted Allooloo Wednesday afternoon of assault with a weapon in relation to the Sept. 16, 2006 incident, calling it a "serious breach of duty" for an RCMP officer entrusted to look after the well-being of a prisoner in custody.

In the early morning hours that day, Allooloo pepper-sprayed the 16-year-old prisoner, who a witness described as a "wild thing," under the door of the detachment's drunk tank cell, hitting him in the left eye.

The teenage boy was being held after being arrested for a breach of probation.

It was the testimony of co-worker Const. Sigmund Janke that convinced Gower of Allooloo's guilt.

Janke testified that Allooloo had admitted the assault to him and also said he viewed the incident on the detachment's video security system, presumably before it malfunctioned.

Gower said he found Janke was "reluctant to put the career of a fellow police officer in jeopardy" but at the same time was a conscientious and honest witness.

The trial resumed in NWT Supreme Court Tuesday, after being adjourned late March because of witness availability.

On Tuesday, the court heard from prisoner guard Sheila Wright via video link from Nova Scotia. She testified she did not see Allooloo pepper spray the prisoner but also described the officer as "angry" that night.

"You could just tell by his demeanour that he had had enough, as had I," she said.

When asked to describe the prisoner, Wright added: "It was a prisoner like I've never had ... He paced the cells like a caged animal ... He's just a kid but he was something else."

The court also heard from Miroslav Hebik, who is in charge of the video surveillance system in RCMP jails. Hebik spoke of the missing Sept. 16 video tape and testified that the system had indeed malfunctioned -- it had not been tampered with or erased.

"It either records or it doesn't record. You either erase everything or you don't erase everything," he said.

A sentencing date for Allooloo has not yet been set. Crown attorney David Gates and defence attorney Patrick Fagan are expected to make arguments for sentencing at that time.

Allooloo has been accused of assault by a prisoner twice before in two 1999 incidents, one in Iqaluit, one in Behchoko. Both times he was found not guilty.