Calgary motel employee accused of sexually assaulting guest by posing as chat friend
Police allege man accessed phone numbers using motel records in order to text alleged victim
A 27-year-old man has been charged with sexually assaulting a woman staying at a motel in southwest Calgary last fall.
Jatinder Pal Singh Brar of Calgary was arrested Tuesday as he returned to Canada at the Calgary International Airport, the Calgary Police Service said Thursday morning. Police did not say why Brar had left the country.
The man was an employee ofCanada's Best Value Inn Chinook Station, 5307 Macleod Trail S.W., where the woman was allegedly assaulted in her room.
Police say Brar may have accessed her phone number using the motel guest registration information. Police say a man texted the woman, who thought he was someone she had previously chatted with on social media.
In the early hours of Oct. 12, the woman let a man into her room, the whole time thinking he was "an online acquaintance," police say. That's whenthe man sexually assaulted the woman and then fled, according to CPS.
Police were called and started investigating.
The apparent ruse used to arrangethe alleged assault is "fairly rare," saidStaffSgt. Bruce Walker, head of thesex crimes unit,at a press conference Thursday morning.
Employee fired
Motel owner MunmunComarsays she hired Brarabout five years ago and he was working the night shift at the motel last October, checking guests in and out.
She says she remembers the woman came to the front desk that morning, saying something had happened and she wanted to switchrooms. The woman later checked out, and then the detectives came to the motel to explain the woman hadcalled about the alleged sexual assault.
Comartold CBC News she gave police access to the motel's video surveillance that covers the front desk as well as camera looking atthe hallway outside the woman's room. She said the video of the hallway showed a man but she couldn't tell who it was.
Police thenasked to speak with Brar, who worked the night shift at the motel.
"I said this is very unfortunate but I am alwaysthere to help you guys," she said.
A few weeks later, in November, Comar fired Brar over tardinessas well as missing and changing shifts not in connection with the investigation.
Comar said she learned he wasa suspect only this weekwhen the detective called.
"Never was this at the back of my mind that something like this had happened [when he was fired]," she said. "I did not know about it until yesterday."
'Ready to help'
Comar, who has owned the motel for about sevenyears, said she will be looking at increasing security and monitoring of guest records. She believes the woman's information could have been accessed simply through her booking reference, which is on any of the front desk computers.
"I'll have to probably take some more measures to secure my system in future so that this information is not available," Comar said. "I am ready to help all the agencies in any manner they would like to make this smooth for everybody."
The police investigation has not yet determined how the man may have viewed the woman's online chats in order to pose as her acquaintance. Police say that also may have been an assumption or coincidence.
Walker told reporters that it's "always advantageous" for those using dating sites to meetnew people in public places and to tellsomeone where they're going first.
"There's lots of transactions through social media that have ended without sexual assault occurring," Walker said.
"It's not the victim's fault just because they're using social media or online acquaintance dating sites.... At the end of the day, I would hazard a guess these individuals, victims, don't sign up to be sexually assaulted."
Brar is due to appear in court on April 24.
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