Trial of suspected serial sex offender Richard Mantha underway

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The primary of seven girls allegedly abused by serial sexual assault suspect Richard Mantha testified Friday she believed he was her salvation from a lifetime of prostitution.

The girl, who can’t be recognized, mentioned she thought-about Mantha a buddy when she agreed to go along with him to a rural property east of Calgary on April 22, 2022.

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“I used to be a prostitute in Forest Garden,” the lady advised Crown prosecutor Dominique Matherin.

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She mentioned Mantha approached her within the southeast group that day and he or she obtained into his automotive.

“We mentioned that I used to be going to assist him construct partitions in his Quonset,” mentioned the lady, who had performed commerce work prior to now.

“It was fairly thrilling for me,” she mentioned.

“He was going to assist me not should work as a prostitute anymore.”

However she mentioned after arriving on the accused’s rental property, issues turned when she went to cost her telephone inside a trailer within the Quonset.

“Richard came to visit and tried to take my pants down,” she mentioned.

“I didn’t wish to try this, I didn’t know whether or not he was going to harm me. I attempted to cease him.”

She mentioned Mantha then bodily attacked her.

“He began being forceful with me . . . I used to be being strangled, I had him on prime of me holding my mouth, holding my face down. He took my telephone and he simply continued to hit me with my telephone till it broke into items.”

The girl mentioned she was capable of wrestle free and flee the premises.

“All I bear in mind is simply preventing for my breath . . . simply screaming and screaming and screaming.”

She mentioned she ran from the Quonset along with her pants down till she obtained to a close-by roadway and collapsed.

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“He was laughing at me,” she mentioned.

“I had nothing left in me. I obtained to the freeway and I collapsed and I awoke within the hospital.”

Her testimony continues Monday.

Accused will solely be tried as soon as, decide guidelines

Earlier, Justice Judith Shrier dominated Mantha will solely be tried as soon as in reference to the allegations.

Holding a single, consolidated trial is not going to hinder Mantha’s capability to mount a defence, the Calgary Courtroom of Justice decide mentioned in an oral determination.

In siding with the Crown, Shrier famous having a number of trials would entail a number of appearances of witnesses, the repetition of routine authorized procedures and probably incompatible verdicts.

Though the decide acknowledged there have been variations between the issues involving every of the seven complainants — heightening the chance of prejudicing the accused as soon as the presentation of proof begins — Shrier mentioned for judge-alone trials, the justice system expects judges to do their work dispassionately and trusts them to have the ability to separate the details introduced to them whereas being truthful to the accused.

Defence lawyer Kim Arial had argued Wednesday there have been too many dissimilarities between complainants’ instances in opposition to Mantha to warrant holding just one trial.

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The Crown, in the meantime, mentioned holding seven separate trials would do a disservice to the administration of justice.

Mantha faces 20 fees in reference to allegations he sexually abused seven girls, and one extra cost of failing to look in court docket. He’s additionally accused of incapacitating six of the complainants by giving them medication. In some situations, it’s alleged he used a weapon or uttered threats in the course of the assaults.

Not one of the allegations has been confirmed in court docket.

Mantha has been in custody since April 2023, when an in depth raid occurred on a rural property east of Calgary the place he saved a rented dwelling.

Calgary police and RCMP performed an in depth, days-long search at an acreage on Vale View Street between Chestermere and Langdon over the Easter lengthy weekend.

The prolonged search on the property — about 20 kilometres east of Calgary’s metropolis limits — concerned forensic and canine models, with officers seen conducting grid searches and tossing luggage of proof into unmarked police automobiles.

With information from Ricky Leong

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