Saanich Police investigating sexual assault with a weapon

Saanich Police are investigating a serious sexual assault involving a weapon early Sunday morning.

It happened at the Gordon Head Townhouse complex in the 3900 block of Wolf Street.

Police say an unknown male brandishing a knife entered the darkened home at 2 a.m. and sexually assaulted a 22-year-old woman from the Lower Mainland, who was staying the night with friends from the University of Victoria.

The victim was not physically injured, and is now recovering with support from friends and services.

The victim describes the suspect as tall with short blond hair, athletic-looking. He may have been wearing glasses.

Saanich Police Staff Sgt. Chris Horsley says they’re aware that some homes in the area where university students are living are unsecured, and are investigating the possibility that the suspect may have been aware of this and taken advantage of the situation.

“There is a very large density of university students often living in groups – sharing houses and townhouse – and it became known to us that many of them are not even securing the doors ever, so people are just coming and going through the front door, and of course that’s of concern. And it looks like potentially, the suspect in this incident may have had prior knowledge that this home would not be secure at night.”

“We’re looking into whether there’s some sort of connection between the suspect and the home. We’ve ruled out completely the occupants of the house; they’re all known to the victim and have been completely cooperative with police.”

“We believe that it’s likely this person – maybe through friends, associates… maybe from a party… is aware that this house was open. So we’re trying to determine if there’s any sort of nexus between the victim and the attacker; ie. was this person being followed, or was there some sort of connection beforehand? It’s very early in the investigation, and what we do know for sure is that it appears this individual was able to simply walk into the home in the middle of the night.”

Horsley says Saanich Police are not drawing any connection between this attack and previous assaults in Saanich in recent months.

“By and large, this area is very safe. There’s lots of traffic… even at 2 in the morning, there would have been a lot of foot traffic around the area, so certainly if anyone saw anyone perhaps running from the area or acting suspicious, we certainly want them to give a shout to Saanich Police.”

Police remind everyone to lock their homes at night.

Police are asking anyone with information to contact Saanich Police.