Rape of passed-out co-worker lands Calgary man 45-months

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The rape of a stunned co-worker, who didn’t report the crime until five months later when she discovered she was pregnant, has earned a Calgary man a 45-month prison sentence.

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Judge Keith Yamauchi, in a written decision posted online, found there were several aggravating factors that warranted a sentence close to the 4- to 4½-year sentence proposed by Crown prosecutor Donna Spaner.

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But one factor Yamauchi did not consider was that Yoseph Mulugeta Abreha is a two-time offender.

The King’s Bench judge said the fact that Abreha was sentenced to 27 months in December 2021 for a sexual assault committed about a month before his most recent crime could not be an aggravating factor as he was guilty was found after the sexual assault took place.

“When Mr. Abreha committed the crime for which this court sentences him, he was 23 years old and had no criminal record,” Yamauchi wrote.

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Abreha’s previous sexual assault took place on 24 August 2019. The recent attack on his unconscious co-worker took place less than two months later, between September 13 and October 6, 2019.

In the second incident, Abreha asked a 19-year-old woman he met that day while working for temp employer Diversified Staffing if she wanted to go to his place for drinks after work.

But after becoming extremely drunk, she passed out on his bed and he sexually assaulted her.

“She went into denial,” Yamauchi noted.

“Eventually her roommate bought her a pregnancy test kit which indicated she was pregnant. It was about five months after the incident. She terminated the pregnancy.”

A DNA test on blood taken from the fetus determined that Abreha was the father.

Yamauchi said a sentence above the 30-month term proposed by defense attorneys Jeremy Newton and Gillian Shiskin was warranted.

He noted that the effects on the victim were significant and possibly lifelong.

“She’s getting sick just thinking about it,” Yamauchi wrote.

“She says: ‘I assume it will be like this . . . until the day I die.’ “

KMartin@postmedia.com

Twitter: @KMartinCourts