The alleged victim of a man accused of sexually assaulting her is wondering why he was released from custody following his arrest after he failed to show for a court appearance and remains at large.
Vernon Bret Faithful, 23, was apprehended July 17, a day after police were called to an apartment building in the 1900 block of Upland Street to investigate a report of a man breaking into one of the apartments and attacking the woman while she was asleep in her bed.
The 63-year-old woman, who asked that her name not be printed, told The Citizen on Wednesday she woke up at about 2 a.m. to find a large man straddling her across her waist and both of his hands over her mouth.
"He leans down and he says to me, 'don't make a move, don't make any noise, I have a knife and I'll use it,'" she said.
But she said she did move and was stabbed in the hand.
She said the man then ordered her to turn on her side. Fearing he was about to sexually assault her, "that's when I went nuts."
Although she weighs only 110 pounds to the attacker's 200 and despite taking 15-20 punches to the head, she was able to ward him off and he fled the apartment. The woman said she did not get a good look at the man and was not sure how police determined it was Faithful.
But she did hear he was released the day after he was arrested and back into the same apartment building where both were living, a fact she said she learned from police only seven days later.
When she went to the courthouse on Oct. 9 for Faithful's first appearance, he was a no-show, and a warrant for his arrest was subsequently issued.
Faithful faces five charges related to the incident: sexual assault with a weapon; assault causing bodily harm; assault with a weapon; uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm; and enter with intent to commit an offence.
He also faces a charge breach of an undertaking or recognizance from an Aug. 12 incident related to the file.
Faithful remains at large, Prince George RCMP Cpl. Craig Douglass said Wednesday.
