Lynn Valley groper convicted of sexual assault

A Mission, B.C., man who groped a woman on a popular North Vancouver trail has been convicted of sexual assault.

North Vancouver RCMP said Jairus-Paul Covacha Sacramento was found guilty in North Vancouver Provincial Court last Friday.

Sacramento was arrested in Abbotsford in March 2022 on a tip from the public, about a month after the Feb. 13 incident on Lynn Valley trail.

In an interview at the time, the victim told Global News the suspect had grabbed her buttocks from behind, prompting her to pull out her phone and record him.

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“(I) 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,” she said.

The woman also criticized the RCMP’s response, saying she called 911 but ended up driving to the North Vancouver detachment herself after no one showed up for nearly an hour.

Police later described the response as “unfortunate,” and cited an unusually high number of priority calls in the city at the time.

In a media release Wednesday, Mounties urged sexual assault victims to come forward and said the North Vancouver RCMP Special Victims Unit is always available at 604-985-1311.

-With files from Elizabeth McSheffrey