A Guelph police officer is no longer facing a charge of discreditable conduct.

Const. Neil Moulton had been charged with that offence in connection with a voicemail message he left for a woman named Judy Somerton.

Somerton is the sister of Tim Byrne, who died in a car crash last year. Police have said that Byrne was responsible for killing Andrea Normore, whose body was found dead in a townhouse in Cambridge a few hours after the car crash.

Normore and Moulton were related.

In the voicemail, Moulton asked Somerton to “cut the bulls*** going on over Facebook” and said that she was “not going to want to continue this s***, because I’ll put an end to it.”

According to Moulton’s lawyer, Bernard Cummins, the message was in response to “vile messages” Moulton and his family had received.

“He was responding to the most unimaginable horror that anybody should ever encounter in their lives, and he did so in a restrained, professional manner that should not have attracted any scrutiny under the Police Services Act,” Cummins said in an interview.

Somerton filed a complaint against Moulton with the Office of the Independent Police Review Director, which led to Moulton being charged with discreditable conduct.

Under Ontario law, police had to notify Moulton of a hearing in the case within six months of the complaint being filed.

Because 10 months elapsed before Moulton was notified, a tribunal determined Friday, the charge could no longer proceed.

“Unfortunately, this particular case exceeded that six-month limitation,” Guelph Police Insp. Dave Pringle told reporters.

“As a service, we apologize to all involved people.”

Pringle declined to say specifically why it took 10 months for Moulton to be notified. He did say call the case “very complex,” saying police had to take “a lot of investigative steps” as they looked into the matter.

“We’ve now adapted proper measures to ensure that this doesn’t reoccur in the future,” he said.

Cummins called Friday’s developments “a welcome conclusion to a very sad event” – adding that Moulton had yet to receive any expressions of sympathy, offers of counselling or other signs of “human kindness” from his employer.

“Rather than there being sympathy, my client has been disciplined for conduct that I think falls far outside of what the Police Service Act contemplates,” he said.

Moulton remained on active duty as the complaint process played out. Following Friday’s hearing, Pringle described Moulton to reporters as “a valued member of our service.”

With reporting by Krista Simpson