Charge dismissed against former Bridgewater police chief accused of violating sexual offender registry order

A provincial court judge has dismissed a charge against former Bridgewater police chief John Collyer of failing to comply with a Sexual Offender Information Registry Act order after the Crown offered no evidence.

Collyer was sentenced in March 2020 to 15 months in jail for the sexual exploitation of a 16-year-old girl. His sentence also included an order that he be registered with the national sex offender registry for a period of 20 years.

In September 2025, Collyer was charged with failing to comply with the order, and the matter was scheduled for trial Monday in Bridgewater provincial court. However, Crown attorney Hannah Cameron told Judge James Burrill that “after further discussion and review of the file, the Crown has determined that there is no public interest to proceed and is withdrawing the charge before the court.”

The judge then dismissed the charge.

Collyer was required to put his name on the registry after he was released on parole in 2021. Under the act, he must also report any change of address or change in the type or colour of car he drives or its licence plate, and he must report to the registry annually.

It’s not known which of the sections of the act Collyer had been accused of not complying with.

Collyer was convicted in October 2019 after a nine-day trial that heard he had befriended the victim and her family when they moved to the Bridgewater area. The evidence heard was that he and the girl exchanged frequent messages on social media and by text, which in the following years became sexual in nature.

Collyer’s explanation was that when he was drinking he had no filter and he sometimes used sexual innuendo with family and friends.

The trial judge took issue with that, saying in her finding of guilt that “this ‘sexual innuendo’ was in messages to an adolescent who he knew had mental health disorders. This sexual innuendo was in messages to a person functioning between the ages of 10 and 12 years old. These messages were to someone who thought of him as a father figure.”

The judge said they led to an inference of an older man grooming a girl to have sexual contact.

The victim testified that in the spring of 2016, when they were driving in his car, Collyer sexually assaulted her. Collyer denied touching the girl.

He was also convicted of sexual assault, but the judge issued a conditional stay because the offence of sexual exploitation encompasses all the elements of sexual assault.