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Man convicted in series of sexual assaults

By: Mike McIntyre

Posted: 08/15/2012 1:01 PM | Comments: 0

A Winnipeg man has been convicted of a sexually motivated rampage which included four separate attacks – including the rape of an eight-year-old boy -- in a series of inner-city apartment blocks.

Peter Lloyd Roger Laporte, 36, was found guilty Wednesday of eight criminal charges following a lengthy Court of Queen’s Bench trial. He remains in custody and will be sentenced later this year. He faces the potential of a major sentence given the severity of his crimes.

The first attack involved the sexual assault of a 38-year-old woman around 4 p.m. on Dec. 15, 2007. He jumped her inside a Cumberland Avenue apartment block, claiming he had a knife and would stab her. Laporte took the woman into a stairwell, removed their clothing and raped and beat her before fleeing.

Laporte was arrested the following month, only to be released from custody on Nov. 10, 2008 when the Crown stayed the charges. However, they would be revived weeks later when Laporte struck again in a major way with three more unprovoked attacks.

On Nov. 23, 2008, Laporte followed a child into an apartment block on Balmoral Street, taking him into a stairwell and violently sexually assaulting him. The boy escaped and ran for help after someone came into the stairwell. He was taken to hospital and treated for serious injuries. Court heard the attack happened around 4:45 p.m., lasted 18 minutes and was partially captured on surveillance tape. Laporte’s own mother identified him as the adult in the video, despite Laporte denying any involvement at trial.

"(The victim’s) mother described some of the psychological effects on the boy. When asked to compare her son’s state of mind before the attack with his state of mind after the attack, she stated that before the attack he was an excited, loving, outgoing personable child who loved to visit his many friends. Since the attack, he has been depressed, sad and scared," Justice Perry Schulman wrote in his 21-page decision.

Around 6:45 p.m., Laporte went to a Cumberland Avenue apartment block and cornered a 23-year-old woman who was holding her two-year-old baby in an elevator. He held a knife against her body and tried to pull the two victims into a stairwell once they exited. Another tenant interrupted the incident and Laporte fled.

There was also video surveillance of this incident, and Laporte’s mother again identified him in court as the attacker.

The final incident happened around 9:30 p.m. when Laporte attacked a 48-year-old woman who was walking to work from her Agnes Street home. Laporte offered her some alcohol and she went with him to a nearby residence on Furby Street, where he began attacking her and eventually forced sexual intercourse upon her. A caretaker heard the woman’s screams and rushed to help, only to be beaten by Laporte.

The caretaker eventually overpowered Laporte, smashed his head on the ground and sat on him until police arrived. Laporte then lashed out at the arresting officers, kicking and punching them while screaming that he had HIV and was going to infect them.

Laporte has an "extensive" history of police involvement. In court documents, Laporte's former common-law wife said she suffered extensive physical and emotional abuse during their four-year relationship. In late 2001, she was granted a protection order against him and then entered a shelter with her two children, one of whom was fathered by Laporte. She was granted sole custody of the children in 2002.

www.mikeoncrime.com

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