Two women at the centre of what’s been dubbed the RCMP “jail cell sex scandal” may be spared the ordeal of testifying in court at the upcoming preliminary hearing of three police officers and one civilian guard charged with breaching the public trust.

At a pre-trial conference in provincial court Thursday, lawyers representing the accused men as well as the Crown told the judge it’s likely that statements taken from the women during the police investigation of the incident will be enough.

None of the lawyers expected they will need to cross-examine the women, at least at this stage of the proceedings. Preliminary hearings are held to determine if there is sufficient evidence to proceed to a trial.

The women will be required to testify at the trial, however, if the matter proceeds. The preliminary hearing is scheduled to last at least seven days, and will get underway April 2.

Cpl. Kenneth Brown, Const. Evan Elgee and Const. Stephen Zaharia, along with civilian jail guard David Tompkins, face one count each of breach of trust.

The charges stem from an August 2010 incident at the Kamloops RCMP detachment. Two drunken women in custody, who did not know one another, had sex in an RCMP cell. The incident was witnessed via video.

It’s alleged the guard and officers called their colleagues to the room to watch, some of them laughing and making crude comments about the activity they were seeing in the cell. None of them immediately intervened.

Judge Cleaveley was told much of the evidence at the upcoming preliminary hearing will focus on questions of local and national RCMP policies and procedures around the handling and segregation of infectious prisoners. One of the women in the cell was infected with the HIV virus.

All of the lawyers told the court they expect to argue there is insufficient evidence to proceed to a trial.

“It’s a very novel charge and the involvement of the various accused in the events is quite different. It should not shock you to hear me say my client’s involvement is the least of the accused, and the Crown knows all that,”  said defence lawyer David Butcher.