Passerby tells courtroom of discovering alleged sexual assault sufferer on street

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A witness advised courtroom Monday how she helped an alleged sufferer of an accused serial sexual assaulter discovered freezing and bloodied on a street close to Calgary.

Cybil Pridmore stated she had simply turned off the TransCanada Freeway to move south on Freeway 797 on April 22, 2022 when she got here throughout one other passerby who’d stopped to assist a shoeless girl mendacity on the facet of the street.

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“The woman on the bottom was simply weeping, she was very muddy and chilly,” Pridmore advised Calgary Courtroom of Justice through the trial of Richard Mantha.

“Her pants had been pulled down under her buttocks, there was blood throughout her nostril and her knuckles had been swollen and lower … she was curled up like a fetal place on the street.”

Pridmore stated the lady advised her and one other passerby that she’d been drugged, choked and sexually assaulted and had reached the street by strolling there.

“I didn’t know the place she got here from — it’s an enormous area (there) … she didn’t know the place she walked from,” she stated.

Earlier on Monday, the lady who had apparently been helped by Pridmore advised courtroom she fled throughout a stubble area after being assaulted by Mantha within the camper trailer the place he lived on a rural property.

“I didn’t have my very own garments, I didn’t have something — I assumed I used to be going to die,” stated the lady, who can’t be named.

She stated she vividly recalled the violent assault that day, which she advised courtroom final week concerned Mantha flattening her pants and severely beating her together with her cellphone and making an attempt to strangle her when she resisted.

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Whereas telling courtroom she enormously feared him, she additionally expressed sympathy for him.

The lady stated she felt badly for Mantha’s squalid residing circumstances in a fifth-wheel trailer parked in a Quonset hut on a property east of Calgary, the place she has testified she was sexually assaulted and crushed on April 22, 2022.

“I really feel unhealthy he needed to reside like that however that’s the place the assault occurred,” the lady advised courtroom, who was emotionally overcome when viewing proof pictures of the scene.

“I don’t know if I really feel indignant or really feel sorry for him. I’m sorry — I didn’t suppose wanting on the pictures would upset me a lot.”

Some exchanges between alleged sufferer, defence testy

The 59-year-old Mantha is charged with sexually assaulting seven girls and drugging six of them on a rural property in Rocky View County.

He’s additionally charged with failing to look in courtroom.

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The alleged sufferer additionally engaged in typically testy exchanges with defence lawyer Andre Ouellette, who questioned her reminiscence of occasions and her recollection of the alleged crime scene.

“You don’t acknowledge the property in any respect, that (police) had been exhibiting you in pictures,” stated Ouellette.

The witness stated Mantha’s residing quarters had modified in pictures taken by police a 12 months after she was allegedly assaulted, however she acknowledged some options, akin to the place she started charging her cellphone simply earlier than being attacked.

Her recollections of the complete property weren’t good, she stated, “as a result of most of my reminiscence was from working from there — I didn’t know (then) I’d have to recollect.”

The lady additionally admitted greater than 20 years of drug use that included methamphetamines and crack cocaine may have affected her reminiscence, although she added that she’s been sober for the previous 18 months.

Witness testifies to seeing accused shortly after assault

Ouellette additionally questioned if the lady had mentioned the case when she met one other alleged feminine sufferer of Mantha’s throughout substance abuse therapy.

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“I advised her I’m (concerned within the Mantha case) however I gained’t focus on it together with her,” she stated.

The witness stated she additionally advised the lady she’s “planning on forgiving (Mantha) as a result of I acknowledge there’s sick individuals who must get effectively.”

She testified she went with Mantha after the person promised her building work and a strategy to depart a lifetime of prostitution.

And he or she pointedly requested Ouellette if he’d ever been assaulted.

“I’m the one asking the questions,” replied Ouellette.

The witness additionally testified that shortly after the assault, she noticed Mantha in a automobile with a lady driving previous her whereas she stood at a bus cease in Forest Garden.

“I panicked. Anyone met me and so they took me dwelling,” she stated.

She’d heard rumours, she advised courtroom, that “he was providing fee for individuals to hurt me and I used to be afraid.”

Ouellette once more challenged her reminiscence, noting she couldn’t recall if the automobile pushed by Mantha at the moment was pink or blue.

Final April, police extensively searched the property 20 kilometres east of Calgary on which Mantha was renting an outbuilding, and the place authorities say they employed cadaver canine and eliminated “1000’s” of displays.

Final week, Justice Judith Shrier rejected a defence request that Mantha be tried in seven separate trials, agreeing with Crown prosecutors that might contain a number of appearances of witnesses and probably incompatible verdicts.

The trial, which resumes Tuesday, is predicted to run one other three weeks.

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