Police lay charge in Pioneer Manor image-sharing case

Greater Sudbury Police have charged a 35-year-old former employee of Pioneer Manor.

The charge comes as a result of an investigation into the sharing of images of manor residents taken without their consent.

On June 23, GSPS received a complaint that images of residents at Pioneer Manor were being shared by employees. Five employees were found to have shared images of 10 residents using the social media app Snapchat.

Catherine Matheson, the city's GM of community development, told Sudbury.com on June 28 that the investigation started when a staff person came forward with concerns that some employees were taking pics of residents inside the city's long-term care home and sharing them on the social media platform.

"That was investigated over a period of about a week-and-a-half and we concluded that, just in the last couple of days, as a result of that we did find there was a breach of privacy of the residents of Pioneer Manor -- 10 individual residents by five persons," Matheson said.

"Those staff persons have since had their employment terminated at the manor as a result of this infraction of the policy."

The photos were taken and posted over the last couple of months, she added. Snapchat photos disappear soon after you view them, but screenshots can easily be taken to make them permanent.

As far as they are aware, the images weren't shared on any other social media, she said. This is the first such incident they are aware of at the Manor.

"Absolutely, this is the first we're aware of that has occurred,” Matheson said. “It was an isolated event and certainly that's why we took it very, very seriously."

GSPS was brought in to investigate. As a result of the investigation by the Criminal Investigations Division, a 35-year old woman has been charged with Distributing Intimate Images Without Consent. 

Police said the investigation revealed the four other employees involved didn’t share intimate images of the residents. 

The name of the woman charged has not been released. She will appear in court on Aug. 16.

Matheson wouldn't discuss the nature of the photos with Sudbury.com or anything about the content of those images.

"They were a violation of privacy and they were inappropriate,”she said. “Anything further than that, I would be getting into a breach, as well. So to protect the residents' privacy, that's as far as we can go."

She also said resident safety was never an issue and a consultant is being brought in to review the rules with staff and ensure everyone knows the rules.