Justice system can’t stop serial groper from offending

Thirteen years ago, she was jogging along a trail at Westwood Lake in Nanaimo when a scruffy-looking guy crossed her path with his bicycle. As she tried to move around him, he reached out and his hand went for her crotch.

“He mostly got my thigh and I kept running, then stopped to look back,” said D.H., who did not want to use her name. “But when I turned and looked back, he sneered at me and I knew he meant to do it on purpose. His lip was curled. It was just gross.”

Like millions of women around the world, D.H. posted her assault story on her private Facebook page with the #MeToo hashtag last week. The groping incident wasn’t the worst or only sexual harassment she’s faced, but it has stuck with her.

She reported the incident to police right away. A confident 23-year-old criminology student at the time, she drew a sketch of the man. Her husband was the RCMP officer who later arrested him. They discovered the man who assaulted her had done it many times before. He’d done jail time, he was on parole and he claimed to have Frotteurism — a disorder where someone feels compelled to rub their genitals against someone in public.

“I had every privilege. I was not afraid to come forward and I did not see myself as a typical victim,” said D.H. “But when a Victim Services worker started to talk with me, all these things she was saying about how I might feel were true. No psychological armour can protect you from assault.”

When the man who assaulted her pled guilty and went to jail, she was satisfied — even knowing it wouldn’t be forever.

But when D.H. decided to Google his name after sharing her #MeToo story with friends, she was shocked by what she found. “He was still assaulting women. I couldn’t believe it,” she said.

She found news stories about his assaults — including a 2013 incident in which he groped the buttocks and chest of a 23-year-old Vancouver Island University student who was out for a run.

A quick search brings up a list of assaults and short jail sentences from 1999 to 2014 in Steveston and Nanaimo. According to one article, the man grabbed a young woman’s bottom as she was walking into a building. And he had his hands down his pants.

In another, he was sentenced to one day in jail for brushing against a woman while he touched himself as he asked for directions. His crimes also included exposing himself in public and making harassing phone calls.

“How many times does someone have to offend before they are prevented from victimizing any more women?” D.H. asked. “I know being groped is, on the spectrum of sexual assault, relatively minor and might get swept aside. But … look at how many more victims he has.”

Const. Gary O’Brien from the Nanaimo RCMP said the man who assaulted D.H. is well known to police, but he has not heard about him for a few years and could not comment on any specific cases.

He said police have worked hard to raise public awareness about sexual assault, communicate with the university and keep a close watch to ensure offenders are following parole conditions.

“These are the rules we have to play by and we do our best,” he said.

O’Brien said he’s not surprised when offenders are released from jail and commit crimes again — it happens all the time.

“We know there are people who will recommit 75 per cent of the time, but we don’t have the resources to monitor them 24/7,” he said.

Anne Taylor, the executive director of Haven Society — a non-profit organization in Nanaimo that operates Victim Services, sexual assault response services and transition houses among other programs — said it’s rare that that kind of crime would not happen again. “What #MeToo is doing is bringing to the forefront that these things are happening at epidemic levels.”

Taylor said sexual assaults are on the rise, despite all other major crime numbers dropping, yet only a very small percentage of women report being assaulted, let alone harassed.

She hopes the #MeToo campaign inspires more victims to come forward and seek help. But part of that will depend on what comes out of the latest allegations against powerful men, she said.

“With the [former CBC Radio host] Jian Ghomeshi case, I think a lot of women watched what was happening in the media and saw these women in court have their strong characters assassinated and thought: ‘Forget it,’ ” said Taylor. “What so many fail to understand is how women are victimized, the manipulation. They think rape is some guy jumping out of a bush — which is barely ever the case.”

Taylor said she thinks real change can be made through legislation and public education, for both women and men. For example, her organization runs a program called Men Choose Respect to help men take responsibility for abuse and learn to change their behaviour.

But the first step should be shoring up crisis responses, she said.

“Make sure there is positive social response, so every time a victim comes forward, she is believed and supported,” Taylor said.