Fourteen years for river trail area sex assaults

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This article was published 26/09/2022 (1087 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A man who pleaded guilty to a series of sexual assaults on or near Winnipeg river trails has been sentenced to 14 years in prison, the CBC has reported.

Jordan Andrew Bruyere, 30, was arrested in August of 2021. He was charged with sexual assault, sexual assault with a weapon, assault and assault with a weapon in four separate incidents that spring and summer.

He was sentenced in Manitoba provincial court on Monday. He will serve just over 12 years of the sentence, having been in custody since his arrest.

The first attack was April 8, 2021, when, armed with a knife, he pulled a woman in her 30s to the ground near the Manitoba legislative grounds. The woman fought back and was able to break free and flee.

On June 4, a woman walking on Assiniboine Avenue near the Donald Street Bridge asked Bruyere if she could borrow his phone, court was told. He agreed, but said there was better reception near the bridge, where he dragged the woman to the river’s edge and raped her while armed with a knife.

On June 12, a woman walking on the trail along Churchill Drive was grabbed from behind and pulled to the ground. She screamed until the assailant let go and she ran off.

On Aug. 8, Bruyere sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl on the trail near Churchill High School.

The Crown and defence agreed on recommending the 14-year sentence, which, court was told, took into account Bruyere’s past: abused as a teenager and neglected as a child by physically abusive, alcoholic parents.

Once released from prison, Bruyere will be barred from owning weapons for the rest of his life and from being near parks, playgrounds, community centres and other places children may be.