Man accused of sexually assaulting three SCS workers denied bail

LETHBRIDGE, AB – 35-year-old Trevor Plaited Hair appeared in Lethbridge Provincial Court Tuesday to answer to three charges of sexual assault, one count of assault, one count of uttering death threats, and two counts of breaching conditions.

Crown Prosecutor Lisa Weich explains that Plaited Hair is a regular user of the Supervised Consumption Site.

While attending the facility in April 2018, a volunteer alleges that Plaited Hair pushed her over and told her he would “f*** her”. Another person nearby was able to push him away.

Then in July 2018, he reportedly gave the same volunteer a “full body hug” and kissed her repeatedly on the cheek.

A different volunteer claimed that the same thing happened to her in January 2019.

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The most recent incident was reported on July 16th, 2019, where Plaited Hair allegedly also tried to hug and kiss a third female volunteer.

A police officer tried to arrest him shortly afterwards, but upon doing so, Weich told court that Plaited Hair said to the officer, “you’ll be dead for that”.

The Crown Prosecutor went on to explain that two of Plaited Hair’s previous conditions for release were that he was not allowed to be within 50 meters of the Supervised Consumption Site and that he could not possess any weapons.

She claims that he was found on August 3rd with a folding knife near the SCS.

Ingrid Hess, Paited Hair’s lawyer, said in the courthouse that her client suffers from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), schizophrenia, drug addiction, and low IQ.

She asked that her client be released into the custody of his mother in Lethbridge.

The presiding judge, however, told Carlson that Plaited Hair seems to “keep falling through the cracks” and that there are not enough tools to keep the public safe if he were to be released again.

The judge has therefore declared that the accused will remain in jail until his trial can start.

Staff are now working to set a trial date.

The trial is expected to last no more than one day and would include witness testimonies by four civilians and one police officer.