By Radha Agarwal
A former Burnaby RCMP officer received a conditional sentence after assaulting an international student he was in a relationship with in Vancouver in 2022.
Stanley Lee, 46, was sentenced to 12-month conditional discharge with probation on March 6, 2024 at Vancouver Provincial court after being found guilty of assault. His conditions include a curfew and going to counselling for mental illness.
He was also fined $100 in a victim surcharge.
Lee, who was referred to as an exemplary officer in the field by his colleagues, was removed from the force on a “medical disability discharge.” He became a member of the Burnaby RCMP in 2004 and was promoted to sergeant in 2019.
He told the court that severe childhood abuse, combined with years of witnessing traumatic incidents as an officer, resulted severe PTSD. He said that hiding everything he went through, and the associated shame, may have piled up and resulted in the way he acted out.
His psychologist supported his claim of going through long-term mental distress, adding Lee also experienced dissociative and delusional episodes.
Lee says he was living in a state of “fantasy” at the time of his affair with the student.
He apologized in court for all the pain he caused his victim and his family, and promised to turn his life around to become a “Christian family man.”
His counsel argued that this affair was the only out-of-character action he committed and that it is not a pattern. He said he spent three months – between July and October 2022 – at a full-time residential treatment facility.
Lee met the student on sugardaddy.com where he pretended to be single and in the finance field. The woman, who is unnamed, said she was unaware of his “double life” as a married police officer with a son.
In April 2023, Lee was charged with seven offences that included assault by choking, uttering threats, theft of $5,000 or under, breach of trust by public officer and unauthorized use of a computer. The offences are said to have been committed in April and May of 2022.
In one offence, Lee and the student got into a fight and he started becoming physically aggressive toward her. The victim said she reached out for her phone to call 911, and that’s when the defendant snatched it from her and started to drive away with it.
She called it the most horrifying phase of her life. In her letter addressed to the judge and court, she said that she took solace in her relationship with Lee after arriving alone to a new country.
She said she felt completely betrayed by the incidents, and that “this scar has left her with severe social anxiety and low self-confidence.”
As part of his sentencing, Lee cannot contact the student and he cannot visit any place where she works, lives, attends school or worships.