The spokesman for the Vancouver police has been reassigned over a controversy involving an off-colour joke and a disparaging comment about women.

Det. Scott Driemel was the spokesman for the task force investigating the disappearance and murders of 63 women from the city's downtown eastside.

Police Chief Jamie Graham said Friday he had accepted Driemel's request for reassignment and that he would be replaced by Const. Sarah Bloor.

"It has become evident that the attention this matter has drawn on his family has been most difficult," said Graham.

Driemel triggered a firestorm when it was revealed he told a joke about a prostitute at a police seminar last June.

He later wrote letters of apology to 93 people in attendance.

In a separate incident, Driemel also admitted to telling an American reporter the women in Vancouver's downtown eastside couldn't get a date "because they're ugly."

On Thursday he tried to defuse the remark with an explanation.

"If you really want to boil it down, that's what I said," he told the Province newspaper. "But what I actually told the U.S. reporter is that these women are healthy when they first start out, but by the time they get (to the downtown eastside) their level of addiction means they have no choice about what they do, their looks are ruined and it is hard for them to get dates."

Robert Pickton, a pig farmer from suburban Port Coquitlam, has been charged with 15 counts of first-degree murder in connection with the missing women case.

Driemel's reassignment was welcomed by two family members of the missing women.

Ernie Crey, whose sister Dawn has been missing since 2000, said he didn't think Driemel would be able to continue in his role as spokesman for the joint Vancouver police-RCMP task force.

"He and (RCMP Const. Cate) Galliford often appear at joint meetings," said Crey. "How could he walk into a room where the families are present? I just couldn't see how he could continue on in the role."

Rick Frey, whose daughter Marnie has been missing since 1997, said he found Driemel's comments "appalling."

"I found them very offensive and what hurts me the most about the whole bloody thing is we've been telling the police department how they been dragging their feet on this whole missing women's case," said Frey.

"His comment is what he thought about them being the low lifes of the world. They were our sisters and daughters and mothers. They had feelings. I'm glad he's gone."

With files from Canadian Press.