Multiple charges laid in DTES sexual assault against man acquitted in Manitoba murder

A man who was once charged and convicted of the murder of a teenage girl in Winnipeg has been arrested and charged with sexual assault in Vancouver.

A man arrested and charged in connection to a sexual assault in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside earlier this month has a connection to a high-profile Manitoba homicide case.

The Vancouver Police Department announced Wednesday that 62-year-old Mark Edward Grant has been charged with one count each of unlawful confinement, sexual assault, assault with a weapon and uttering threats in relation to a Jan. 8 incident.

Police say the victim is a woman in her 60s and the assault allegedly occurred inside a residential building near East Hastings and Columbia streets.

A VPD spokesperson tells CTV News that Grant was arrested on scene, and it’s believed he and the victim were known to each other.

“I can confirm that she did in fact go to the hospital,” said Const. Darren Wong.

He could not provide specifics about the weapon used in the assault, but confirms the suspect is known to police.

Grant has faced charges before—but not in Vancouver.

In 2007, he was arrested in Winnipeg after DNA testing linked him to twine used to bind 13-year-old Candace Derksen, who disappeared on Nov. 30, 1984.

Her body was found six weeks later in a shed and the cause of death was determined to be hypothermia.

Grant was found guilty of second-degree murder in 2011, but the Manitoba Court of Appeal overturned the conviction in 2013, ruling the trial judge erred by barring defence evidence that might have suggested another possible killer. Following a judge-alone retrial in 2017, Grant was acquitted.

He remains in custody in Vancouver pending a bail hearing.

With files from CTV News Winnipeg, The Canadian Press