Published On Thu Feb 02 2012 Toronto Star
A former detention officer has been acquitted of sexual assault of a refugee inmate inside a Toronto immigration holding centre.

“The only issue for my consideration is credibility,” Justice Andrea Tuck-Jackson, of the Ontario Court of Justice, said in a decision delivered Thursday.

In a case that pitted the words of a vulnerable female inmate against a 6-foot-8 enforcement officer, the judge said the Crown must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Seibert Phillips was guilty.

The 36-year-old man, a Canada Border Services Agency employee since 2003, was charged in July 2010, after the failed refugee claimant from St. Vincent complained to her lawyer.

The assault allegedly took place during a span of 70 minutes toward the end of a work day, inside a Rexdale Detention Centre interview room.

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