'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
Two killed after collision with truck on Hwy. 417 near Limoges, Ont.
Ontario Provincial Police say two people were killed after a car and a transport truck collided in the westbound lanes of Highway 417 near Limoges, Ont. on Tuesday afternoon.
Houston braces for flooding to worsen in wake of storms
High waters flooded neighborhoods around Houston on Saturday following heavy rains that have already resulted in crews rescuing hundreds of people from homes, rooftops and roads engulfed in murky water.
Canadian doctor concerned new weight-loss drug Wegovy may be used inappropriately
As Wegovy becomes available to Canadians starting Monday, a medical expert is cautioning patients wanting to use the drug to lose weight that no medication is a ''magic bullet,' and the new medication is meant particularly for people who meet certain criteria related to obesity and weight.
What a U.S. farmworker’s case of bird flu tells us about tracking the infection
A U.S. farmworker who caught bird flu after working with dairy cattle in Texas appears to be the first known case of mammal-to-human transmission of the virus, a new study shows.
‘We made them safer and more fun’: Here’s what’s new about e-scooters
Electric scooters (e-scooters) have been gaining popularity in the capital and this season comes with some changes and updates.
Hulk Hogan, hurricanes and a blockbuster recording: A week in review of the Trump hush money trial
Crucial witnesses took the stand in the second week of testimony in Donald Trump's hush money trial, including a California lawyer who negotiated deals at the center of the case and a longtime adviser to the former president.
A Chinese driver is praised for helping reduce casualties in a highway collapse that killed 48
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
Grandparents killed in wrong-way crash on Hwy. 401 identified
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
Canadian Auger-Aliassime reaches first Masters final in Madrid with another walkover
Montreal's Felix Auger-Aliassime has advanced to his first ATP Masters final, and he hasn't had to play all that much tennis to do it.