Man charged in assault on Winnipeg teen likely to stand trial in fall

A man charged in connection with the nearly fatal 2014 assault on a Winnipeg indigenous teen is expected to stand trial this fall – the latest development in a high-profile case that transformed the victim into a voice for Canada's missing and murdered indigenous women.

The 18-year-old, who cannot be named because he was a minor at the time of the alleged offences, is slated to be tried over a two-week period beginning Oct. 24, prosecutor Jennifer Comack said in an e-mail. A direct indictment has been preferred, meaning there will be no preliminary inquiry. The Crown's office confirmed that the prosecution intends to seek an adult sentence if there is a conviction.

The young man and his co-accused, 21-year-old Justin Hudson, were charged with attempted murder, aggravated sexual assault and sexual assault with a weapon in the wake of the Nov. 8, 2014, attack on the teen and a separate assault hours later on a second indigenous woman. Mr. Hudson, a member of the Poplar River First Nation, pleaded guilty last year to two counts of aggravated sexual assault and is scheduled to be sentenced in June.

The 18-year-old's lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment. None of the allegations against the young man has been proven in court.

The names of the two victims, at the time aged 16 and 23, are protected by a publication ban. The attacks provoked a conversation about identifying victims of sexual assault and captured the country's attention for their brutality. Police say the teen was beaten by two men and ended up in the frigid waters of the city's Assiniboine River. She crawled out, only to be assaulted by the same men who, police say, left the scene and attacked the second woman near a city pool.

The indigenous teen soon emerged as a prominent advocate for a national inquiry into Canada's missing and murdered indigenous women. The federal Liberal government, which concluded pre-inquiry consultations with victims' families and aboriginal organizations last month, has promised to launch a national probe into the violence by the summer.