Four charged after violent sexual assaults in Nunavik
Women in several communities endure week of terror
It was a week of terror for several Nunavik women who endured violent sexual assaults.
But the Kativik Regional Police Force made several arrests and four men are now in custody facing a variety of serious charges.
Late one afternoon last week in Salluit, Mayor Michael Cameron called in the police so they could speak with a social worker and a woman “about something serious.”
The police arrived, and the woman told the constables a man had raped her. The man had held a knife to her, the woman said, and threatened to kill her if she didn’t comply. The woman is recovering in Montreal.
A suspect was found the following morning, walking around the community. Utaya Paulusi Padlayat, 32, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault.
Police said alcohol was a factor in the incident.
Because of the level of violence in this incident, the Sûreté du Québec provincial police were called in by the KRPF to investigate the crime scene.
In Kuujjuaq, the KRPF arrested a man who is alleged to have committed an assault with a knife on a woman last Saturday, Oct. 28.
Moses Tooma, 38, who was on probation at the time, was arrested, charged with aggravated assault and taken back into custody.
Since August, the KRPF had also been looking for a man in Kuujjuaq, who, according to victims’ statements, entered dwellings through windows and then, on at least one instance, assaulted the occupants. The most recent incident occurred on Oct. 28.
Peter Papak, 24, who was on probation, was arrested, taken back into custody and now faces several separate charges relating to a string of break-and-enters and assault starting in August.
On Aug. 22, Oct. 8, Oct. 22 and 28, Papak is alleged to have broken into houses “with intent to commit an indictable offence.” Papak is also charged with committing an assault on Oct. 8.
In Kangirsuk, the KRPF arrested Qalingo Airo, 31, who police allege committed three sexual assaults on the same victim in October, 2003 and twice in October, 2005, the latest “on or about” Oct. 22.
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