Accused’s cellphone searched for news after sexual assault, robbery
The cellphone of a man accused of sexually assaulting and robbing two University of Victoria international students was used to search news and Crime Stoppers websites the morning after the attack, a B.C. Supreme Court jury learned Friday.
At 11:25 a.m. on Jan. 28, 2016, the cellphone used by David Robert Hope searched CTV Vancouver Island — Local Breaking News, Greater Victoria Crime Stoppers, and Victoria’s Most Wanted: Do You Recognize Any of These Suspects, Saanich police Const. Blair Stearn told the court.
Hope is charged with sexual assault and unlawfully confinement, robbery, and break and enter with intent to commit an indictable offence on the night of Jan. 27, 2016.
Stearn, a member of the Greater Victoria Integrated Tech Crime Unit, was testifying at Hope’s trial about the call logs, text messages and web history he extracted from the cellphone.
Police obtained a search warrant allowing them to collect data from the phone for Jan. 20, 2016, to April 5, 2016, the day of Hope’s arrest by Saanich police in Saskatoon.
News websites were searched four times on the cellphone on Jan. 29, 2016. The web history shows a search of CTV Vancouver Island’s website at 5:43 a.m., then a story with the headline Saanich Women Sexually Assaulted After Door Knock. These websites were searched again at 8:45 a.m.
The web history shows searches of more news sites at 6:11 p.m., and the news story UVic Campus on Alert as Saanich Police Hunt Sex Predator.
At 7:46 p.m., there were searches of the Greater Victoria Crime Stoppers and the Crime Stoppers Most Wanted websites.
The following day, the first search on the cellphone is for “Victoria’s most wanted.”
On Feb. 2, there were searches for wanted persons on the Saanich police website and Greater Victoria Crime Stoppers. More searches were carried out on Feb. 14, 19, 22, and 28. The web history includes the Vancouver Sun, CFAX and CHEK News.
Stearn also testified about a number of text messages he extracted from the cellphone.
They show Hope texting his former boss in Saskatoon on Jan. 29 asking if “work has picked up out there” and asking if he needs any help.
The former boss said he is not sure. But Hope texts a friend, telling him his boss “wants me back bad. … He said he was crazy busy.” Hope flew to Saskatoon on Jan. 30. This week, one of the students testified that a man came to their apartment and pounded on the back door. When her roommate opened the door, the man told them not to yell or scream.
The woman, who testified behind a screen and through an interpreter, described how the intruder ordered her and her roommate into a bedroom, told them to take off their clothes, and began sexually assaulting her.
Her roommate managed to get the man to stop by saying that they had money they could give to him. The women put their clothes back on and led the man to Shelbourne Street to find a bank machine. They went to one where one of their bank cards didn’t work, then crossed the road to another.
The woman withdrew $80 or $90 — everything she had. They gave the money to the man, then decided to make a break for it, finding safety in a Starbucks coffee shop.
The second student is expected to take the stand on Monday.