Cambridge Bay fears return of home invasion rapist

There’s unease in Cambridge Bay about the imminent return of convicted rapist Desmond Kaosoni to his home community.

A woman who narrowly escaped Kaosoni by running out barefoot into the snow in December, 2003 — after he entered her house, pinned her down on her couch with a butcher knife and begged her for sex — says she’s worried about Kaosoni’s return.

“He’s sick,” she told Nunatsiaq News.

Kaosoni, 27, is about to be released from federal penitentiary after serving time for a number of assault and sexual assault convictions dating back to 2003 and 2004.

Kaosoni has been out of Cambridge Bay since September of 2004 when he broke into four houses and assaulted four people.

When asked whether any move would be taken to issue a public advisory about Kaosoni, Sgt. Charlie Gauthier of the RCMP said he had not yet been told about any concerns over Kaosoni’s return.

Gauthier said he had issued other warnings in Iqaluit and Coral Harbour.

“We will do if it the need is there,” he said. “If someone says ‘I fear for my safety because of this, this and this,’ we would apply for a peace bond.”

Gauthier said this move would result in conditions such as no contact or a curfew, or other conditions “that seem reasonable at the time.”

“Our main concern is public safety, and we will do whatever we can to keep the public safe, but the individual does have rights. But if they have a legitimate concern for safety, I am all ears,” he said.

Kaosoni broke into four houses and assaulted four people on Sept. 1, 2004 in what Cambridge Bay MLA Keith Peterson then called “another rampage.”

Three or four days earlier, Kaosoni had returned to Cambridge Bay from Iqaluit, where he had served a 12-month sentence for several sexual assaults that took place in December, 2003, Nunatsiaq News reported.

After Kaosoni’s second wave of attacks, the hamlet council discussed asking a judge to banish Kaosoni from the community, but decided that this action would be too complicated and would have little effect on future repeat offenders.

Instead, the hamlet agreed to write a letter to Paul Okalik, then the minister of justice. Peterson, then a regular MLA, tabled the letter in the legislative assembly on Nov. 17, 2004.

In that letter, Terry McCallum, then the mayor of Cambridge Bay, said communities should be warned when violent offenders return home.