The B.C. Court of Appeal has ordered that a Vancouver Island chiropractor convicted of sex offences must register with the national sex-offender registry. In October 2008, a B.C. Supreme Court jury found Dr. Peter Titchener, a 53-year-old Comox chiropractor, guilty of sexually assaulting five of his female patients by fondling their breasts.

The trial judge imposed a 12-month conditional sentence on each count, to be followed by 12 months’ probation. The Crown applied to have him registered with the sex-offender registry. By law, an offender can seek an exemption from the mandatory order if he can prove that the impact on him is “grossly disproportionate” to the public interest in protecting society.
 
The trial judge granted the exemption for Titchener, and the Crown appealed that ruling. A three-member panel of the B.C. Court of Appeal found that the trial judge had erred in granting the exemption. “In my opinion, there is no evidence that the respondent would be more affected by the order than would any other sex offender,” said B.C. Court of Appeal Justice Richard Low in reasons for judgment released Tuesday.

The judge found the applicable term for Titchener to be registered with the sex-offender registry is 20 years. The sexual assaults happened between January 2004 and October 2005. Tichener’s victims cannot be identified due to a publication ban. In July, an inquiry committee of the College of Chiropractors of B.C. determined that Titchener posed a risk to children and revised the conditions applying to his practice.