A decorated Canadian police sergeant with more than two decades of experience on the force pleaded guilty to using the law enforcement database to pursue intimate relationships with around 30 women, including those who were victims of domestic violence as well as one who was suicidal.
Robert Eric Semenchuck, 53, of the Regina Police Service in Saskatchewan entered a guilty plea during a court appearance on Friday, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He is due to be sentenced in January.
Police say Semenchuck, who was awarded medals and commendations for exemplary service during his 22-year career, allegedly accessed protected information to find, contact and build relationships with women who had no idea he was a veteran officer.
Robert Eric Semenchuck, 53, of the Regina Police Service in Saskatchewan is pictured above. Regina Police Service/
Investigators have identified at least 24 women in court documents, but a source familiar with the probe told the Globe and Mail that the number may reach 30.
The patterns described by multiple women are strikingly similar, the newspaper reported.
Semenchuck would use an alias and send a text claiming intent to have sent the message to another number, it was alleged. The seemingly innocent text then led to a casual exchange that turned into constant messaging, according to women interviewed by Canadian press outlets.
Semenchuck would frequently use the names “Jay Lewis” or “Steve Perkins” while presenting himself as a contractor or project manager, according to the reports.
K, an Indigenous woman recovering from domestic abuse, received an unusual message while staying in a women’s shelter.
She told Globe and Mail that the text felt like a lifeline at her lowest moment and that she continued correspondence for a period of four years.
It was only in 2023 did she begin questioning who he really was.
“I was like, ‘Do I really know this guy?’” she told Globe and Mail.
When she ran a photo he had sent her through facial-recognition software, it returned an image of a man sitting at a desk with a police jacket hanging behind him.
A police acquaintance confirmed it was Semenchuk, according to the report.
Semenchuck pleaded guilty on Friday to using the Regina Police Service database to pursue intimate relationships with around 30 women.
“I can’t describe the feeling, everything that went through my head in that moment,” she said.
“One of the first things that hit me was fear. Fear of this person, his power and what he could do.”
K contacted police, triggering an internal investigation which lasted for two years. She said the man she knew was a fiction.
C, another woman, told Globe and Mail she received a message from someone identifying himself as Steve.
“I was 18 years trying to find someone, and I didn’t know how to go about it,” she told the publication.
Their relationship lasted a year and a half. She said parts felt affectionate, but Steve became controlling and demanding.
“He was sex-crazed,” she said, describing constant pressure to send explicit photos.
She struggled to understand why she was targeted. “How did he know who I was? Why did he choose me?” she said.
Meghan Hillsdon, a disabled single mother recovering from spinal surgery and grieving the death of her father, told Globe and Mail she responded to a wrong-number message days before Christmas in 2022.
She later learned police believed she had been targeted by Semenchuck.
Another woman, identified as H, said Semenchuk contacted her in his capacity as a police officer after a domestic violence incident in 2019, then sent late-night messages for months.
“It was constant,” she said. She recalled her mother’s reaction when she described the texts: “That’s really inappropriate.”
The Post has sought comment from Semenchuck’s attorney. Semenchuck resigned from the force in April.