Suspect arrested for sexual assault, confinement of woman in Fort Saskatchewan

After being on the run for a week, a convicted sex offender suspected of brutally attacking a woman in the Edmonton area has been arrested.

Fort Saskatchewan man Jason Trevor Hipson, 45, was arrested Friday night in Sherwood Park, where RCMP said officers found him just before 8:30 p.m. at a gas station in Palisades Way.

He is a suspect in an attack that saw a woman in her early 50s allegedly confined in a home for approximately eight hours and assaulted.

RCMP said the ordeal only ended when someone showed up at the Fort Saskatchewan home and saw what was happening.

The victim was treated by paramedics and then taken to hospital with what RCMP described as “significant injuries” to her entire body.

The RCMP said they believe the man behind the assault left the scene in the woman’s vehicle before leaving it in Sherwood Park, where Mounties later found it.

Police said the suspect was believed to be looking for alternate modes of travel or attempting to hitch hike.

Hipson is facing charges that include aggravated assault, using a weapon during the commission of a sexual assault, forcible confinement, overcoming resistance to commit an indictable offence (choke, strangle or suffocate), overcoming resistance to commit an indictable offence (administer overpowering drug) and vehicle theft.

The RCMP said Hipson was convicted between 2005 and 2007 in Yarmouth, N.S., of robbery, use of imitation firearms, break and enter, sexual interference and sexual assault. The RCMP did not go into detail about what incident(s) the charges stemmed from.

RCMP released the details while he was wanted, saying, “Hipson being at large for these new charges (was) a public safety concern to all.”

Members of the public were warned not to take any form of vigilante action.

Hipson has since been taken back to Fort Saskatchewan, where he will be held at the RCMP detachment awaiting a bail hearing.