Guilty pleas in headline-grabbing sex attack
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A Winnipeg man has admitted responsibility for a pair of violent sexual assaults that made headlines across the country.
Justin Hudson, 21, pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of aggravated sexual assault for offences against two women committed within hours of each other, Nov. 8, 2014. Charges of attempted murder and assault with a weapon were stayed by the Crown.
Neither victim can be identified under terms of a publication ban.
Court heard Hudson and a then 17-year-old co-accused had left home with the intention of breaking into cars when they crossed paths with the 16-year-old victim on Donald Street.
Hudson and the co-accused quickly decided to rob and sexually assault the girl and lured her to a path under the Donald Street bridge, Crown attorney Debbie Buors told court. There the two accused punched the woman in the face and stomped on her head and upper body, knocking her unconscious. The two accused then took turns sexually assaulting her.
“At some point she awoke and was immediately physically attacked with a punch to the face which knocked her out again,” Buors said.
The victim ended up in the river and travelled approximately 100 metres before she managed to pull herself out.
The two accused found her and assaulted her again, this time hitting her in the head with a hammer.
The victim was left unconscious on the riverbank where she was found by a passerby several hours later and rushed to hospital with critical injuries. She was released from hospital a week later.
Two hours after their attack on the girl, Hudson and the co-accused met a 23-year-old woman on Sherbrook Street and walked with her for a time before assaulting and raping her.
“During the entire time she is being sexually assaulted by Hudson and (the co-accused), she is pouring blood from her face, the inside of her mouth and from a wound to the back of her head,” Buors said.
Sometime later, Hudson, the co-accused and victim were walking down Ellice Avenue when a male passerby yelled at the men to leave the woman alone. The youth accused chased him and assaulted him with a baseball bat.
Hudson and the youth eventually released the woman and returned to Hudson’s Sherbrook Street home. Questioned about the blood on their clothes the youth accused said they “stomped a guy because he was fighting back and they stole his stuff.”
Sometime later two of Hudson’s family members visited a nearby 7-Eleven store where they encountered the victim and offered to help her. The woman fled and Hudson’s family members returned home.
Hours later when Hudson’s mother questioned him again about his activities, Hudson said “Shut the f... up or I’ll do to you what I did to that girl last night.”
A family member called 911 and Hudson fled the house.
Police arrested Hudson and the youth accused three days later.
Hudson will be sentenced sometime early next year following the completion of a court ordered pre-sentence report.
The youth accused remains before the court and is in custody.
Twitter:@deanatwpgsun
