Two years later, two foreign exchange students are still dealing with the trauma of a sexual assault and robbery in their Church Avenue apartment.
In the victim impact statement read during WednesdayB次元官网网址檚 sentencing hearing for David Robert Hope, the victim, a young Chinese woman, was left B次元官网网址渄isgusted with Victoria,B次元官网网址� a place she came to study because her family believed it was safe.
Hope, 45, was recently found guilty on seven counts for breaking into an apartment and He was arrested in April 2016, in Saskatoon, by a team of Saanich and Saskatoon police officers.
On Feb. 26, the jury of seven women and five men stood unanimous in finding Hope guilty of one count of break and enter to commit an indictable offence, two counts of unlawful confinement or imprisonment, two counts of sexual assault and two counts of robbery.
Crown counsel is seeking a minimum sentence of seven years for Hope. The Justice will announced the sentencing decision on Friday morning.
The victims are two young Chinese exchange students who were studying at UVic. They described their various psychological impacts from the incident in the victim impact statements read aloud by Crown counsellor Patrick Weir at the sentencing hearing on Wednesday. One of them saying theyB次元官网网址檙e still haunted to this day, afraid to travel alone
B次元官网网址淭wo years afterwards I still cannot feel safe and reassured in my own home. IB次元官网网址檓 still not comfortable being alone in the evening or travelling at night,B次元官网网址� read one of the victimB次元官网网址檚 statements.
The incident put the two students under immense pressure at university, as they found it difficult to study and were forced to make a variety of arrangements. In addition to that, peers and acquaintances concluded they were the victims.
B次元官网网址淔riends and classmates asked me about this crime, knowing that it happened in my apartment building,B次元官网网址� said one victim. B次元官网网址淚 had to lie.B次元官网网址�
Immediately after the invasion the two sought relief and decided to move out from the apartment, which took about five days. However, because they broke their rental agreement, they were refused a downtown apartment when the previous landlord reported their actions in a reference check.
B次元官网网址淚 came to Victoria because [my family believed] it was safe,B次元官网网址� one victim said. B次元官网网址淚t made me dislike Canada and disgusted by Victoria, which I thought was beautiful.B次元官网网址�
The Jan. 27, 2016, incident lasted about 40 minutes. It started at about 7:20 p.m. when the accused banged at the ground-floor patio door of an apartment at 1514 Church Ave. (about one block from Shelbourne Street). The two women were home and opened the door for the accused.
He then forced them to undress down to their panties in a bedroom.
One of them offered him money, at which point they dressed themselves and Hope escorted them with a goal of withdrawing money from a Shelbourne ATM. Once that goal was reached, they paid the accused a sum in the low hundreds and fled to a nearby Starbucks, from which a 911 call was placed just prior to 8 p.m.
As the home invasion did not feature a weapon, masked face or significant molestation in terms of the sex assault, Weir asked the judge to consider the incident holistically and altogether as a significant incident, and B次元官网网址渘ot as a low-end break and enter, a low-end robbery and a low-end sex assault.B次元官网网址�
Hope, a father of three, maintained his innocence in a closing statement, calling the trial an eye-opener.
B次元官网网址淚 had never really seen how victims were affected, so by seeing the way [these victims] were affected by what happened to them made me think about the stuff IB次元官网网址檝e done in the past B次元官网网址� IB次元官网网址檓 ashamed that IB次元官网网址檓 in this box right now, I should be at home with my kids, being a role model for them. I know I have a long criminal past. IB次元官网网址檓 ashamed of that as well. I really feel for the victims from my past.B次元官网网址�
