Man charged with sexually assaulting two teens

A 54-year-old man is accused of sexually assaulting two vulnerable teenagers.

“It’s deeply concerning as a police officer, as a mom and as a citizen in our community, to know that there are young people that are vulnerable and being exploited on many different levels,” Winnipeg Police Service spokeswoman Const. Dani McKinnon said Tuesday.

“It is our job as a community and as police to protect these people — that means reporting suspicious relationships (between) vulnerable youth and older adults.”

McKinnon said she could not reveal the gender of the victims.

Officers who were looking for a missing youth found the teen at the man’s suite in the central part of the city Sunday morning. Police arrested him and turned him over to sex crimes investigators.

Police learned two teens had met up with the man — who was an acquaintance of one of them — at his apartment the previous night, where they were given drugs and alcohol.

One of the youths left, but the other stayed at the apartment; the man physically and sexually assaulted the teen, police said.

Investigators learned about an incident in October in which the other youth was assaulted and forcibly confined by the man, police said.

Lawrence Philip Richards has been charged with two counts each of sexual assault with a weapon and forcible confinement, as well as sexual assault, sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching, assault, assault by choking and administering a noxious thing. He was held in custody.

McKinnon said there are predators in Winnipeg who look to exploit vulnerable kids.

“There’s a younger population that’s living a higher-risk lifestyle, exposed to a higher risk lifestyle, and there’s individuals that are certainly aware of this and waiting in the wings, ready to prey,” she said.

McKinnon said investigators from the counter-exploitation, child abuse, sex crimes and internet child exploitation units diligently follow up on reported potential exploitation or abuse of youths.

They try to incorporate preventative measures in their work, including by directing victims to wraparound supports from community social service organizations, she said.

Court records show Richards was charged in January with possession of property obtained by crime. He has a limited criminal record in Manitoba that largely consists of court order breaches as well as convictions for causing a disturbance and mischief.

Richards was born and raised in The Pas, court heard in 2017, and had issues with substance abuse while living a transient lifestyle. He was pending on drug-related charges in Alberta in 2016, a Manitoba court heard that year. It was not immediately clear Tuesday whether he was convicted of those charges.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca