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A man who was caught more than a decade after a string of cold case sex assaults in Vancouver pleaded guilty on Monday.
Arturo Garcia Gorjon was charged in 2023 in connection with four sexual assaults that happened in 2009 and 2010.
His case sparked an outcry when, in opposition to recommendations from both police and Crown prosecutors, he was released on $15,000 bail.
Police began investigating three of the sexual assaults in 2011 — one near Granville Island, one in the West End and one in Yaletown — all of which had taken place in 2009.
It wasn’t until 12 years later, however, that they were able to link a fourth sex assault that took place on Christmas Eve 2010 in downtown Vancouver to the other three, the critical break in the case that ultimately led them to Garcia Gorjon.
The court heard the details of three of the assaults on Monday.
In one incident in June 2009, Garcia Gorjon grabbed a woman and threw her onto the ground, before repeatedly pushing his head into her crotch area and underwear, the court heard. The victim’s friend pulled him off, and he fled.
In November that same year, he reached up a woman’s skirt and got on his knees next to her as she was looking for her mailbox key early in the morning. The victim screamed and smashed him on the head and shoulders, and he fled.
And in December 2010, he assaulted another woman as she was looking for her keys outside her apartment building downtown. The court heard he shoved her into the building’s glass doors, got on his knees and began licking her genitals. She was able to fight him off and he fled.
The court heard Monday how DNA found on all three of the victims’ underwear matched Garcia Gorjon.
Garcia Gorjon pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual assault and apologized in court to his victims and to society, saying he needed to show responsibility to his son and daughter.
He told the court he had a problem with drugs and alcohol at the time, but had since turned his life around.
“I got better, change is possible,” he said.
Outside the court, clad in sunglasses and a face mask with a bucket hat pulled down over his face, Garcia Gorjon said “stay away from drugs and alcohol,” but declined to answer questions from Global News.
The court has yet to set a date for sentencing.
With files from Rumina Daya