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Man accused of assaulting girl, 12, claims being carjacked night of abduction |
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Written by Maria Babbage, THE CANADIAN PRESS
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Thursday, 07 August 2008 |
Stanley Tippett, 32, who stands accused in the sexual assault of a 12 year old girl, is escorted to a waiting prisoner transport outside court in Peterborough, ON, Thursday, August 7, 2008. THE CANADIAN PRESS/J.P. Moczulski
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PETERBOROUGH, Ont. - An already disturbing case took some unusual turns Thursday as the wife of an eastern Ontario man charged with abducting and sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl said he claimed he was carjacked at gunpoint the night the child was snatched off the street.
Stanley Tippett, 32, called his wife before his arrest Wednesday morning, claiming that a thief with a weapon had stolen his minivan, said Natalie Tippett, his wife of 12 years.
Tippett said he was out late that night because he had to undergo tests at a Toronto hospital, she said outside the courtroom in Peterborough, Ont., where her husband appeared Thursday.
Police pursued the van, but Tippett claims he was thrown out of the vehicle and blacked out, she said. When he came to, he had no idea where he was and called her for help to get home, she added.
"I was telling him, 'Can you describe the area? Let me know where you are and maybe we can figure out what town or city you're in,"' she said.
Later Wednesday morning, Tippett was arrested in his uncle's vehicle, several hours after police in Oshawa, Ont., some 75 kilometres away, gave chase to a red van now believed to have been carrying the 12-year-old girl.
Natalie Tippett, 35, said the accusations levelled at her husband have been devastating to her and their five children, aged three months to nine years.
"This is too emotional for me and I cannot handle all the stress," she said. "I got to concentrate on my kids first."
She said her husband and two of their children have been diagnosed with Treacher Collins syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that causes cranial and facial deformities and can affect hearing, speech and breathing.
Wearing handcuffs and an orange prison jumpsuit, Tippett looked dazed during his brief court appearance Thursday, often rubbing his eyes and holding his face in his hands.
Looking at his wife, he repeated the words "I love you" in a soft voice barely audible over the din of the packed courtroom.
The judge ordered Tippett to return to court Aug. 11 for a bail hearing and instructed him not to contact a list of people whose identities are protected under a court-ordered publication ban.
Outside the courtroom, Natalie Tippett described her unemployed husband as a "nice, caring" father who loves his children but wrestled for years with his own personal demons.
According to media reports, Tippett was convicted of harassing a 21-year-old in Peterborough in 2005, and was also a suspect in the unsolved 1999 slaying of Toronto teen Sharmini Anandavel.
He came forward to the Toronto Star newspaper in an effort to "set the record straight" and publicly denied any involvement in the Anandavel case. No one was ever charged.
While she has "mixed feelings" about the latest accusations against her husband, Tippett's eldest son Ryan, 9, believes his father is innocent, Natalie Tippett said.
"He said he doesn't believe it and that his father would never, ever do something like that."
Tippett's mother, Susan Anderson, 54, said his brother Jeffrey is also facing serious charges in Corner Brook, N.L. Jeffrey Tippett has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the death of an 11-month-old boy, Tameron Rose, in early 2007. His trial is set to begin in January.
Police laid the charges against Stanley Tippett on Wednesday after the girl was found by police behind a high school in Courtice, a town about 75 kilometres southwest of Peterborough.
She was supposed to spend the night at her grandmother's after attending a birthday party with friends in Peterborough.
Instead, the girl, who left the house in the company of two others, aged 16 and 14, somehow ended up inside a red van that the trio encountered down the street - a red van police would later pursue as it fled the area where the victim was later discovered.
By about 1:30 a.m., the girl hadn't yet turned up; her grandmother reported her missing and police were dispatched to the party to look for her.
An hour later, Durham police responded to reports of screaming behind the school in Courtice, east of Oshawa, where they briefly gave high-speed chase to a fleeing red van.
It wasn't until police abandoned the chase due to safety concerns and returned to the site behind the high school that they discovered the little girl, police said.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 07 August 2008 )
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