4 charged with sexual assault, intimidating a justice system participant in N.S.

Four people have been charged with sexual assault and intimidating a justice system participant in relation to a human trafficking investigation in the Yarmouth area.

In a release, the RCMP said officers in the Yarmouth detachment began an investigation after after receiving a report about a sexual assault at a property in Brooklyn.

“RCMP officers learned that one person was sexually assaulted and a second was assaulted with the intent to intimidate them for their involvement in an ongoing judicial process related to a human trafficking investigation,” the release said.

On Friday, the Southwest Nova major crime unit of the RCMP executed a search warrant at the property and arrested three men — aged 49, 27, and 48 — and a 35-year-year old woman allegedly involved in the assaults.

All four were charged with unlawful confinement, sexual assault, sexual assault in which other persons were also a party, intimidation of a justice system participant, obstructing justice, criminal harassment, possession of a firearm knowing its possession is unauthorized, and assault.

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All three men were also charged with uttering threats.

As well, the 27-year-old man was charged with careless use of a firearm and the 48-year-old man and the woman were charged with administering a noxious substance and trafficking a substance.

All four were held in custody and were scheduled to appear in Yarmouth Provincial Court Monday.

RCMP spokesperson Sgt. Andrew Joyce said the people charged are not being named due to a publication ban on the case.

Due to the ongoing investigation, little other information is being made public.

“The human trafficking is a file that was already before the courts, and this here was the resulting matter of intimidation of their involvement in that,” Joyce said.