By Dori Modney (@Dori_Modney on Twitter) with files from Global News

Police charge convicted sex offender with sexual assault of 15-year-old girl

Nov 7, 2016 | 4:55 PM

LETHBRIDGE – A convicted sex offender returns to court on November 22 to face sexual assault charges, in what police are calling a random crime.

Between 3:00 and 4:00 Monday morning, a man gained entry to a north side home through a basement door and sexually assaulted a 15-year old girl in her bedroom. The suspect took steps to prevent her from screaming and alerting other members of her family.

Police arrived on scene at 5:14 a.m., cordoned off the area and found a man matching the suspect’s description.

Darral Gerard Courtoreille, 59, has since been charged with break and enter, sexual assault and sexual interference.

In a news conference on Tuesday (Nov. 8), Staff Sergeant Scott Woods, with the Lethbridge Police Service Criminal Investigation Section, could not give specific details about how the victim was kept from making noise. He noted though that there is nothing to indicate the home was being ‘scoped out’.

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However, Woods said that the true hero in this case is the 15-year old victim when it came to apprehending the suspect. Woods stated, “She was outstanding and composed beyond belief from our standpoint and to provide us with the necessary details to really get a head start on the investigation and the ultimate arrest of this individual.”

He went on to explain that the young woman is doing remarkable well, given the circumstances, which no 15-year old should have to deal with.  However, he said it’s something she will likely have to deal with for the rest of her life.

Woods stated that the case is now before the court and additional information will not be revealed as the police wanted to ensure the case is not tainted, to ensure a successful prosecution and conviction.

The police officer acknowledged that this case would certainly be unnerving for the community and women in general, given there have been two sexual assault cases in the city in the last five weeks. He said that while they encourage women to know their surroundings when they go out, this case happened inside the victim’s home, where most people are not expected to be on guard.

This is not the first time Courtoreille has faced similar charges.

Courtoreille was released from prison in January of 2004, after serving two years for sexual interference involving a minor. Then in May 2004, he pleaded guilty to another case of sexual interference of a minor. In December that same year, he was sentenced to 18 months behind bars.

In December 2005, Courtoreille was released, with Lethbridge police warning that he would be living in the city, and was designated a high risk offender after he refused to complete a rehabilitation program for sex offenders.

City police warned Courtoreille was moving to another address in Lethbridge that June.

Woods confirmed there are a number of offenders that they monitor in the city and that they pose some challenges.

“The legal system and the jail system releases offenders into the community daily, so what we have to do is, we have to look and assess who is coming into our community and what risk they pose and target that group who we really want to monitor a little bit more closely. It’s challenging, to say the least, because as is any person that’s in jail for any period of time, if they’re not rehabilitated when they come out, there’s probably a good likelihood that they’re going to go back in and unfortunately some of these individuals are on the straight and narrow for extended periods of time but, then will slip up – it’s pretty hard to predict.”

Woods also noted that it isn’t as easy as most people would think, to get someone designated a high risk offender.

“There’s a process that we have to go take and there’s ultimately an application that goes through court – whether it’s sexual offences versus violent offences – it’s the same process with a few differences.  For example, violent offenders need the approval of the attorney general before we do that.”  

No matter the circumstances, Woods says police have to follow criteria in monitoring those who are designated as a high risk offender.

“Those periods of time are different, but usually in and around a two year time period – what happens if somebody in that two year period is abiding by all the conditions of their designation, when that expires, we are in a precarious situation because it makes it difficult for us to go back to court and extend that for another period of time because is going to be infringing on their rights, as far as them having not been breaching conditions, etc, and committing more crimes. So, it’s challenging for us. I don’t want to be cliche, but, we don’t make the laws in this country and this province, right, MLA’s and members of Parliament do, and we are just tasked with enforcing and we have to play with the rules that we have.”