Man pleads guilty to vicious 2003 sex assault of senior

Warning: This story contains content that may be disturbing to some readers. Discretion is advised.

On Good Friday in 2003, a 78-year-old woman was violently raped and robbed outside her apartment in the Jane Street and Eglinton Avenue area. The victim was left terrified and the attack left seniors in the area fearful.

For months, police canvassed the neighbourhood looking for witnesses, put up posters depicting a composite sketch of the suspect, and Crime Stoppers released a re-enactment video. The case eventually went cold, but investigators never gave up.

On Wednesday, Sept. 16, more than 23 years later, Barry Cory Ernest pleaded guilty to sexual assault causing bodily harm and robbery, admitting that he was the sexual predator responsible.

The cold case is just the latest case solved thanks to the advancements of Investigative Genetic Geneaology (IGG), where police compare DNA uploaded to public geneology websites with crime scene DNA.

Det. Ann-Marie Tupling from the Toronto Police Sex Crimes Unit – Cold Case section, looked on in court, clearly relieved the predator who had eluded police for years, was finally behind bars and had finally pleaded guilty.

The victim, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, was not in court. Assistant Crown attorney Ari Linds told Superior Court Justice Catherine H. Rhinelander that the woman died in 2017 at the age of 92.

According to an agreed statement of facts, the retiree was walking home to Outlook Manor, an assisted living building for seniors on April 18, 2003, around 7 p.m. after doing some last-minute Easter shopping at the Jane Park plaza nearby.

The woman, who relied on a cane to walk at the time because she had recently broken her toes and had an operation on her hip, noticed a man on the ground level of the parkade near the building entrance. She assumed he was an elderly person who lived there and did not pay much attention to that person.

The facts state the man suddenly grabbed her by her hands, then put his arm around her neck and throat and did so suddenly, which she later described in her police statement as being “choked and abducted.” He dragged her to a secluded side entrance near a stairwell and told police, “he was so strong … I couldn’t talk or breathe – I was crying. I thought he was going to … choke me to death.”

At the foot of the stairwell, the woman said, “Please don’t hurt me. I’ll give you anything you want if you don’t hurt or kill me.”

The assailant told the senior to shut up and asked her what she had in her purse, demanding her to throw the contents of the purse out which she did. The woman told her attacker she had $5, saying, “I’m sorry, I just came back from shopping. I don’t have any more money.”

Ernest also demanded she take off her birthstone ring, a gift from her late husband. A watch she had recently purchased for about $175 was also stolen.

The senior told investigators that her assailant seemed angry she didn’t have more valuables in her possession.