Six persons are in custody and one person remained in hospital Thursday after what Prince George RCMP are alleging was a horrific sexual assault of a male youth in the city earlier this week.
Police said the victim was found unconscious in a snowbank behind an apartment building in the 1600 block of Juniper Street near Connaught Hill Park on Monday night and was transported to University Hospital of Northern B.C. where he was in serious but stable condition.
A second male youth was also located, police said, and also found to have been attacked.
"Police have determined that the victims were targeted and lured to the apartment building where they were assaulted by a group consisting of both youths and young adults," Prince George RCMP Cpl. Craig Douglass said in a press release.
Serious crime investigators followed up over the next two days by obtaining five search warrants and arresting six people - two adults and four youth.
The adults, Mercedes Rae Jewett, 20, and Hayden Lee Alwood, 18, have both been charged with one count each of aggravated sexual assault and aggravated asssault, two counts of unlawful confinement and one count of assault causing bodily harm and remain in custody, according to court records.
The identities of the four youths, three males and one female, are protected from publication and charges against them were not immediately available late Thursday afternoon.
"This is a very disturbing investigation" Douglass said. "We will do everything we can to bring those responsible to justice."