Former COPE organizer pleads guilty to sex charges
CBC News
Posted: Aug 8, 2012 3:10 PM PT
Last Updated: Aug 8, 2012 3:07 PM PT
Former political organizer Ibata Noric Hexamer has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting four young girls. (CBC)
A former political organizer for several Vancouver City councillors and the federal NDP has pleaded guilty in B.C. Supreme Court to six charges relating to the knifepoint sexual assaults of four young girls.
Ibata Noric Hexamer, 44, was originally charged with 23 counts in 2010 after a special police taskforce found DNA evidence linking him to the four attacks, one of which dates back 15 years.
During the first attack, in 1995, Hexamer sexually assaulted a 13-year-old after forcing her into a stairwell at Lord Nelson Elementary School.
The second assault occurred in 2007, when Hexamer attacked two 14-year-old girls in Delta. The third attack took place in 2009, when Hexamer sexually assaulted a six-year-old girl in Surrey, and ordered the girl's 12-year-old-brother and 15-year-old friend to lie on the ground.
Hexamer worked as a personal assistant to Vancouver city councillors Tim Louis, Ellen Woodsworth, Tim Stevenson and Dr. Fred Bass, and was hired by Vancouver's Coalition of Progressive Electors as a political organizer in 2005.
He also worked on the 2006 federal election campaign as the database manager for the NDP in Vancouver Centre.
Following Hexamer's guilty plea, the Crown has dropped the remaining 17 counts related to the sexual assaults.
Hexamer remains in custody and will be sentenced in October.
With files from the CBC's Mike ClarkeShare Tools
Latest British Columbia News Headlines
- B.C. teacher duct-taped students' mouths
- The B.C. Teacher Regulation Branch has reprimanded a Vancouver teacher after she duct-taped her students' mouths in an effort to keep them quiet. more »
- Canadian border agents being impersonated in phone scam
- The Canada Border Services Agency is warning Canadians of a possible phone scam and fraud. more »
- Mask ban bill expected to become law today
- The bill that bans the wearing of masks or disguises during a riot or unlawful assembly is scheduled to become law today when it gets royal assent. more »
- Whitecaps aim to keep rolling at home
- The Vancouver Whitecaps will try to extend their home unbeaten streak to eight matches Wednesday night as Jose Luis Real makes his MLS coaching debut for visiting Chivas USA. more »
Must Watch
Top News Headlines
- Neil Macdonald: Washington's obsession with leakers
- Julian Assange and Edward Snowden are just the most prominent targets in an all-out legal and propaganda campaign that America's security apparatus is mounting against leakers everywhere, Neil Macdonald writes. more »
- Montreal scrambles to find new mayor, again
- As their city council searches for an interim mayor, Montrealers are still reeling from the corruption charges laid against a political leader who had pledged to clean up City Hall. more »
- Who's who in the Senate expense controversy
- Keeping track of the names popping up in the ongoing Senate expenses controversy — from the investigators to the four senators themselves — could be a difficult task for even the most seasoned political observers. more »
- How open is Ottawa's new 'open data' website?
- Treasury Board President Tony Clement is touting the federal government's revamped data portal as a "new natural resource." But that online window for previously published data arrives at the same time the government faces controversy over just how open it really is. more »
- Police probe death of woman, 27, in Kelowna home
- Hundreds attend 'Change Brazil' protest in Vancouver
- Parents of son 'brutally beaten' playing hockey want charges
- Failed condo pre-sale deal costs Vancouver buyer $750K
- Police probe Mohinder graffiti in East Vancouver
- Cross Canada bike stolen from B.C. senior
- Vancouver airport CEO takes aim at cross-border travellers
- The class photo that made a father cry
- Prison guard files murder trauma claim
