Vancouver/Surrey/Chilliwack (with files from CBC/Global/Black Press) – A suspect has been arrested by Vancouver Police and charged with the sexual assault of a teenaged girl in a public bathroom – part of an alleged crime spree that included a bank robbery and the assault of a second woman who escaped serious harm Wednesday afternoon.
The series of violent incidents began around 5:15 p.m. on May 28, and occurred inside an office building at Cambie Street and West 41st Avenue, near Oakridge Centre.
A 58-year-old woman was leaving a medical appointment when she was grabbed in the hallway and assaulted by a stranger. She screamed and managed to get away without serious physical injury.
Minutes later, a 14-year-old girl was using a public washroom in the same building when she was sexually-assaulted and forcibly confined by a stranger who was armed with knife. The suspect escaped after another person tried to enter the washroom as the sexual assault was taking place.
As multiple Vancouver Police officers responded to a 9-1-1 call reporting the sexual assault, the suspect allegedly entered a bank on the ground floor of the same office building and committed a robbery. He was taken into custody around 5:40 p.m. as VPD officers arrived on scene.
John Frederick Field, 62, of Surrey, has been charged with the following:
- Sexual assault with a weapon against a person under 16
- Forcible confinement
- Carrying a concealed weapon
- Robbery
- Assault
Field remains in custody.
Anyone with information who has not yet spoken to police is asked for call 604-717-0602.
According to Black Press: In 2020, John Frederick Field was convicted of a failed robbery and a break-and-enter where he got $100, and a sexual assault where he ended up getting kicked in the groin. Since the then 58-year-old has spent 32 of his 40 adult years behind bars, Crown counsel Henry Waldock told BC Supreme Court Justice Thomas Crabtree that Field is unmanageable in the community and deserved a nine-year sentence.
From CBC: A bail hearing is scheduled for June 12.
‘Unlikely to change’ (Prolific Offender)
The last time Field appeared before a judge was in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver last September, where Justice Geoffrey Gomery sentenced him for an incident in February 2023 in which he sexually assaulted a hospital medical technician who was testing his heart.
