Editor's Note: paNOW has removed the name of the victim as it is now under a publication ban.
Nearly one month after a woman was attacked and burned in Prince Albert, the Prince Albert Police Service announced that it had a suspect in custody in connection to the violent assault.
For the family of the victim, the news has brought on a sense of relief. The 47-year-old’s aunt, Lorna Thiessen said she felt a sense of relief for her sister; the victim's mother, and her nieces and nephews. As soon as she found out that police arrested Leslie Ivan Roderick Black, 29, in connection to the June 1 assault, Thiessen sent messages to other family members.
“A sense of relief for them,” she said. “Somebody has actually been caught.”
Black has been charged with aggravated sexual assault and attempted murder after the police conducted a search of his home. There, they found evidence that led to his arrest. He will make his first court appearance on Wednesday.
For Thiessen, there is disquiet. She said she’s had her feelings “on hold” for the past month as she has dealt with family members, friends, hospital staff and the media. But that’s what Thiessen does when she needs to focus, she said.
Thiessen plans to attend court regularly as the case goes through the system. “I plan to walk this all the way through, and, yeah, I plan to go there.” She also wants to make sure the accused is the right person, and isn’t just one of a part of a group that was allegedly involved in the assault on her niece, and that there the necessary evidence to lead them to the right person.
“I’m sure it’s a sense of relief for my family. For myself, it’s not a sense of relief. I have a sense of relief for them. But a sense of relief for myself? No.”
There isn’t that sense of relief for Thiessen because she, herself, was once a part of the social strata her niece belonged to at the time of her assault, and she is aware of the violence that is happening in Prince Albert.
“I know catching one person, charging one person is not the solution, because there’s many more out there and it’s just going to keep happening over and over and over and over again,” she said.
Thiessen doesn’t feel the city is safe – especially not for the people she has spoken to that do not have access to cars, taxis, credit cards or any sort of means that would get them home safely.
She’s looking to the City of Prince Albert to work on solutions, acknowledging that the police can’t do everything and be everywhere. She suggested improving lighting around the city and she wants legislators to think of what they would want for their own family members when they’re approaching the issue of safety.
“My niece was leaving bible study. She was leaving the [Full] Gospel Outreach Center when she was walking to her aunt’s and that happened. Nobody gave her a ride, nobody bothered to do anything to help her out. She walked that route many times to walk home to her aunt’s place.”
After the attack, the victim was taken to a hospital in Saskatoon, then to a burn unit at the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton. She’s undergone numerous skin grafts, a double leg amputation and major facial surgery.
For many weeks, she was intubated and on life support, the tubes in her throat helping her breathe. Doctors soon moved her off life support, as she was finally able to breathe on her own. Last week, with the tubes removed, she began to speak.
Thiessen said her niece is “upbeat,” speaking “very fluently,” and is eating and sitting up in her hospital bed. But it is also highly likely that she has heard about the assault on the news – she has a television in her hospital room.
Thiessen's niece is also aware of what happened and she told her aunt she saw who did this to her.
“Last week, she’s talked to the police,” Thiessen said. Her niece has told everyone who has visited her about what happened to her, she said. There is a psychologist and a pastor on hand for support.
News of the arrest has led to relief in the community. Mayor Greg Dionne said he felt a sense of relief when he heard someone has been arrested and is facing charges. He said with fears that someone who was allegedly responsible was “on the loose,” people were concerned about their safety.
“So I think my biggest thing was the relief for the community,” Dionne said. He also said he is pleased the police made an arrest.
He said the City is always working on making the community safe, but because we can’t “live in a bubble,” there’s no guarantee something isn’t going to happen again.
“We have a high visibility, you know, [of] police around. We’re going to do more checks, and encourage the public to continue to look out for things that they don’t think is right to call in.”
tjames@panow.com
On Twitter: @thiajames
