The Warman man accused of forcing his way into a woman’s apartment and sexually assaulting and threatening her made his first court appearance Thursday morning.
Joseph Yaremko , 37, is charged with sexual assault and forcible confinement.
The woman, 21, told police that she was in her apartment around 5 p.m. Monday when the suspect knocked on her door and asked to use her phone. She refused and he reportedly forced his way into the apartment, sexually assaulted the victim and threatened to hurt her if she attempted to leave, police said in a news release.
She was able to leave the apartment the next morning around 7:30 and report the incident, police say, telling officers that the suspect may still be in her apartment, located in the 100 block of Wellman Crescent.
Officers arrested a male suspected at the address without incident. The suspect and victim are not believed to be known to each other.
Yaremko has a history of violence and has been considered mentally unstable, RCMP have previously said.
In April 2014 he escaped Saskatchewan Hospital, a psychiatric rehabilitation hospital, when an accomplice was believed to have picked him up in a vehicle outside the hospital.
Two days later he barricaded himself inside a Saskatoon apartment on the 2100 block of Seventh Street East and was taken into police custody after a nearly-six-hour standoff.
He is scheduled to return to court next week and has been remanded in custody in the meantime.
