'You don't expect that to come out here': Residents concerned over reported sexual assaults in Brighton neighbourhood
On Wednesday, November 16, Carly Tonkin says she was walking home with her dog through a park in the Brighton neighbourhood when she was approached.
“He asked me if I needed to have service and I thought, because he was a young kid, I thought he was going to need some money for shovelling a driveway or to buy a coat because he was only wearing a sweater, running shoes and sweatpants,” she said.
Instead, Tonkin says he asked her sexually explicit questions until she walked the opposite way.
“I didn't think much of it at the time until my friend told me that evening that she was actually assaulted and touched,” she said.
Saskatoon Police say it’s investigating following separate reports of women being sexually assaulted by a stranger in the area of Dagnone Crescent in recent days.
“The encounters were brief and, fortunately, the victims were able to escape the assault by their own actions,” police said in a statement to CTV News.
“In the interest of public safety but with respect to the victims' privacy, we can offer that the sexual assaults involved a combination of physical, verbal, and exposure-related advancements towards the victim.”
Tonkin says she and her family moved to Brighton from Toronto in July because it looked like a good neighbourhood to raise a family.
“It's a quiet, family-friendly neighbourhood. You don't expect that to come out here,” she said.
Executive director of the Saskatoon Sexual Assault and Information Centre Reagan Conway says it’s a reminder that sexual violence can happen anywhere at any time.
“I think for most people there is a belief that you're safe in your own home, you're safe in your own community, but we know that assaults can happen anywhere,” she said.
Conway says sexual assault is an all-encompassing term, including sexual abuse and sexual harassment. She says it doesn’t have to involve sexual violence and can include emotional and psychological harm.
“As a society, we have to do a little bit better so that we're not telling victims or survivors that they have to protect themselves, but that we need to figure out why these violent crimes are happening in the first place and stop them beforehand,” she said.
“[So] Stopping it before it occurs, offering education. Having a good understanding about what sexualized violence is, supporting it when it happens, and support of survivors of sexualized violence that then might perpetuate themselves.”
Saskatoon Police say the suspect is described as being between 15 and 25 years old, 5’9” to 6’0” in height and approximately 180 pounds with a slim build.
In two separate instances, he was seen wearing a neon purple shirt and neon yellow jacket, before later being seen by the same victim wearing all black with a hood pulled tightly around his face.
SPS says members of the public are asked to remain watchful of people around them, to look out for one another, and contact them or Crime Stoppers with relevant information.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Grandparent scam: London, Ont., senior beats fraudsters not once, but twice
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
Deaths of 4 people on Sask. farm confirmed as murder-suicide
The deaths of four people on a farm near the Saskatchewan village of Neudorf have been confirmed a murder-suicide.
CRA no longer requiring 'bare trust' reporting in 2023 tax return
The Canada Revenue Agency announced Thursday it will not require 'bare trust' reporting from Canadians that it introduced for the 2024 tax season, just four days before the April 2 deadline.
Full parole granted to man convicted in notorious 'McDonald's murders' in Cape Breton
The Parole Board of Canada has granted full parole to one of three men convicted in the brutal murders of three McDonald's restaurant workers in Cape Breton more than 30 years ago.
Incident on Calgary's Reconciliation Bridge comes to safe resolution
Nearly 20 hours after a man climbed and remained perched on top of the Reconciliation Bridge in downtown Calgary, the situation came to a peaceful resolution.
Sunshine list: These were the Ontario public sector's highest earners in 2023
Ontario released its annual sunshine list Thursday afternoon, noting that the largest year-over-year increases were in hospitals, municipalities, and post-secondary sectors.
George Washington family secrets revealed by DNA from unmarked 19th century graves
Genetic analysis has shed light on a long-standing mystery surrounding the fates of U.S. President George Washington's younger brother Samuel and his kin.
'We won't forget': How some Muslims view Poilievre's stance on Israel-Hamas war
A spokesman for a regional Muslim advocacy group says Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's stance on the Israel-Hamas war could complicate his party's relationship with Muslim Canadians.
Why some Christians are angry about Trump's 'God Bless the USA' Bible
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is officially selling a copy of the Bible themed to Lee Greenwood’s famous song, 'God Bless the USA.' But the concept of a Bible covered in the American flag has raised concern among religious circles.