Man sexually assaulted stranger in women’s change room at Stanley Park pool, VPD says

A woman enjoying the long weekend was sexually assaulted by a stranger at Second Beach pool in Stanley Park on Monday.

A 35-year-old man is facing several charges after a woman was attacked by a stranger in a washroom in Vancouver’s Stanley Park Monday.

Hartley Ronald Duckhorn has been charged with assault by choking, unlawful confinement, sexual assault with a weapon, robbery and uttering a threat to cause death or bodily harm.

The Vancouver Police Department said in a statement Tuesday that it was called to the women’s changing room near the Second Beach pool shortly before 11 a.m. on the final day of the May long weekend.

The caller reported that “a suspicious man” had been seen entering the changing room, police said.

When they arrived, officers found “a woman in her 40s who had been robbed and violently assaulted,” according to the statement.

The victim was taken to hospital for treatment, police said.

Officers arrested Duckhorn nearby. He remains in custody pending a bail hearing, according to the VPD.

It appears that this is not the first time Duckhorn has been charged with sexual assault with a weapon.

In July 2020, Surrey RCMP arrested a 30-year-old man named Hartley Ronald Duckhorn after a woman was robbed, then pulled into bushes near King George SkyTrain station and sexually assaulted.

• Read more: Sex assault charge laid against Surrey man after attack near SkyTrain