A man charged in a series of sexual assaults in Vancouver and on the North Shore has told CTV News he has a six-month-old daughter – and he has no idea how he will explain what has happened to her.
Vaughan Englot was emotional as he left provincial court Thursday morning, saying he wants to go through the justice system as quickly as possible.
“Sh-t hit the fan,” Englot said. “I’m not that strong so I don’t know how I’m going to deal with it.”
Englot said he is now separated from his common law wife and their six-month-old daughter.
“I don’t want to think about her right now,” he said. “I don’t know what to do.”
Englot is one of six men singled out by police in a press conference Wednesday. Authorities said high-tech data analysis and old-fashioned police work solved 13 sexual assaults across the city since January.
While some arrests had already been reported, the connections among two series of assaults were new. Michal Popek was charged in four attacks on strangers in Burnaby and Vancouver. One of those attacks involved breaking into a house on West 8th Avenue, according to documents.
“These terrible, unprovoked crimes justifiably scared people,” said RCMP Chief Supt. Jodie Boudreau during the press conference.
The other as-yet unreported arrest was of Englot. Authorities have charged him with three counts of sexual assault relating to three surprise groping attacks on women walking after dark. Two of those alleged attacks were in North Vancouver, while one was in downtown Vancouver.
The attacks happened in the space of a week in January. At that point, Englot said his daughter was about three months old. He says he was drinking heavily.
“It was beyond the point of a few drinks. I wasn’t in my right mind,” he said.
Englot has yet to get a lawyer. The Justice of the Peace told him to return in four weeks.
Several other men charged in these attacks have court appearances in the coming weeks as well.
