North Vancouver RCMP say a man has been charged in an alleged groping incident in a popular park.
Jarius-Paul Covacha Sacramento, a 22-year-old Mission man, is facing one count of sexual assault.
Abbotsford police arrested Sacramento on a job site Friday following a tip from the public, the Mounties said.
The incident is alleged to have occurred around 1:30 p.m. on Feb. 13, as the victim was leaving the Varley Loop Trail in Lynn Canyon Park.
In an interview last month, the woman — who Global News is not identifying for safety reasons — said the suspect groped her buttocks from behind, at which point she took her camera out and began recording him.
“I tried to bring as much attention to what he had done as I could in that moment,” she said.
“And as well, let him know this is not okay, and I’m not going to let you do this to me, and you’re not just going to walk away laughing like he did. He was laughing.”
The woman criticized the North Vancouver RCMP’s response, saying she called 911 to report the assault, but had to call back after no one showed up for nearly an hour.
She said she was told no one had been assigned to the file yet, and ended up driving herself to the detachment to make a report.
Police later described the response as “unfortunate,” and cited an unusually high number of priority calls in the city at the time.
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