By paNOW Staff

Bail hearing set for man charged with alleged abduction

Jun 3, 2014 | 5:31 PM

paNOW staff

Clinton McLaughlin made his first appearance in court following his arrest on Monday for allegedly abducting his ex-fiancée over the weekend.

In a brief appearance, McLaughlin sat hunched over in the prisoner's box at Saskatoon Provincial Court, his face turned away from the gallery with his head in his hands as a court worker and the Crown prosecutor worked out a date for a bail hearing.

McLaughlin is facing a total of nine different charges. Those stem from the weekend's alleged events with his ex-fiancée and at least one more incident involving a different woman. Both alleged victims can't be named due to a publication ban. Among the charges are counts of kidnapping and forcible confinement as well as aggravated assault and assault with a weapon causing bodily harm.

McLaughlin was out on bail when he's alleged to have abducted his ex-fiancée. The Crown has applied to have those release conditions revoked and indicated they'll oppose his release ahead of a potential trial.

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A judge ordered that McLaughlin is to have no contact with either of the alleged victims and one more potential witness. He'll remain in custody ahead of a bail hearing scheduled for June 11.

Finding the missing woman

More than a dozen vehicles drove by a kidnapped woman from Saskatoon as she stood badly beaten on the Yellowhead Highway, waving down vehicles for help.

It wasn’t until a young couple from the city stopped that the woman was brought to safety. She cannot be named because of a publication ban, but her name and picture were quickly shared over social media last weekend after police alerted the public about the alleged abduction.

Jasmine Clarke and her fiancée Thomas Humby were returning to Saskatoon from Langenburg when they saw the woman on the side of the highway Sunday evening.

“We had seen something crouched over on the side of the road and slowed down,” Clarke said.

The couple hadn’t heard about the high-profile abduction case but Clarke convinced Humby to pull over as the woman flagged them down. The woman was allegedly abducted at a home in Saskatoon on Friday. Her friends on social media said she went to the house to return an engagement ring and pick up some personal items.

“I put my window down to ask her what was wrong and I noticed she was badly beaten,” Clarke said. “She could not see out of both eyes. They were bloody, they were bleeding. Her teeth were chipped.”

On Monday Saskatoon police told the media the woman and her alleged captor had been sleeping outside in a rural area east of Saskatoon since Friday without food and water. A farmer found the truck she was allegedly kidnapped in east of Saskatoon on Sunday and police brought a search team in to look for the missing pair. The woman managed to escape Sunday evening, where she found a ride back to Saskatoon with Clarke and Humby.

“We didn’t know she was a missing person or anything. We just picked her up because she seemed like she really needed a ride,” Clarke said. “We were scared for her and scared that maybe he could possibly be right after her so we got her in as quickly as we could and started driving away before he could get to the side of the road.”

The woman was handed a bottle of water, which Clarke remembers her quickly drinking, and offered food which she declined.

The woman used Clarke’s cellphone to tearfully call her mom and tell her she was alive and safe. During the emotional ride back to Saskatoon, Clarke said the woman detailed the abduction, including being tied up in the back of a truck and nearly escaping on 8th Street.

“She was in pain from being hurt but she calmed down after a bit and told me everything that was going on and kind of confided in me. I think she needed someone to talk to after being out there for so long,” Clarke recalled, describing the woman as athletic and strong-willed.

“She kept looking back when we were driving to make sure he wasn’t behind us. She kind of knew after a while — we’d been driving for 10 minutes — that OK he is not here. That’s when she calmed down a lot more.”

Clarke and Humby drove the woman to meet family, where police had already arrived. It wasn’t until Clarke was shown a Facebook post regarding the abduction that she realized who she and her fiancée had saved.

News Talk Radio spoke with the woman’s family Tuesday morning. She is out of hospital and taking her time to recover from her injuries.

Her brother told us that she doesn't want to ever talk about what happened over the weekend.

Clarke said she and the woman have been talking through Facebook and plan to meet up in the future. Clarke added that she is happy to have been able to help and bring the woman home alive.

-with files from paNOW's Ashley Wills, Karin Yeske, Bryn Levy 

news@panow.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow