Iqaluit man found guilty of sexual assault causing bodily harm

An Iqaluit man has been found guilty of sexual assault causing bodily harm and uttering a death threat in a 2018 attack that occurred in a shack on Iqaluit’s beach.

Justice Paul Bychok found Roonie Iqalukjuaq, 44, guilty on both counts in the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit on Jan. 7.

The incident happened on the night of June 27, 2018. The police arrested Iqalukjuaq the next day at the Northmart Tim Horton’s.

The arrest came after the police received a call from the Qikiqtani General Hospital where a woman was being treated in the emergency department.

Under the Criminal Code, the names of sexual assault complainants may not be published or broadcast.

The woman provided a statement to the police at the hospital.

“He was starting to beat me up because he wanted to have sex,” the woman told police, according to a transcript of her statement.

“I can see that you’ve got a cut over your left eye and you’re bruised up on both of your eyes,” the officer said.

“He’s too strong and he was threatening to kill me if I say anything,” the woman said.

Police recovered a broken tea pot from Iqalukjuaq’s shack, which they said they believed was the weapon used against the woman.

“He poured some water all over me, after he noticed I was bleeding and then he told me to take my pants off,” the woman said in her statement to police.

A picture of the woman shows one eye swollen shut with stitches on the eyelid.

The police took over 50 pictures of the crime scene. The pictures show a pillow with a large wolf face on a single bed, a large tapestry of a polar bear that hangs on the wall, and a small table with a Coleman stove, ketchup packets and cigarette butts on top. A crucifix and a baseball cap covered with marijuana leaves hang on the wall.

After finding Iqalukjuaq guilty of sexual assault causing bodily harm and uttering a death threat, Bychok scheduled a sentencing hearing for Jan. 28.