Ottawa's Carleton University is defending the quality and positioning of its security cameras after a man thought to have brutally sexually assaulted a woman in a university lab early Saturday morning couldn't be identified from recorded images.

"I believe that the equipment we have is of good quality," Feridun Hamdullahpur, the university's interim vice-president academic and provost, said Thursday, after police confirmed that the suspected attacker could not be identified from video recorded by the university's cameras.

"As far as I can tell, they are well positioned and they did what they are supposed to do."

As of Thursday, police had received 30 tips about the attack in which a 23-year-old woman in a third-floor lab was beaten unconscious and sexually assaulted before the assailant stole some of her clothing and fled.

The victim was still in hospital Thursday, recovering from a broken jaw, a dislocated shoulder and other injuries.

Hamdullahpur said the university is reviewing its security measures in the wake of the attack and considering:

  • Increasing the number of security cameras.
  • Putting alarms on doors.
  • Keeping a registry of students working alone in labs at night.

No one from the university's security department was available Thursday to talk about its cameras.

A camera at the university did film a man leaving the Steacie Building, where the assault took place, just after the attack early Saturday morning, said Ottawa police Const. Alain Boucher.

"The video is a good-quality video," he said. "Unfortunately, the person is too far away from the camera at the time the video was being taken, and once you enlarge this portion, it becomes too grainy and we can't identify anything."

Ottawa police issued a news release Thursday advising the users of surveillance equipment to annually review the cameras':

  • Location and the direction they are pointing, relative to the area or activity that needs to be recorded.
  • Technology, considering lighting conditions.
  • Working order, including the cleanliness of the lens.
  • Age and need for upgrading or tape replacement.