A former entertainment DJ has pleaded guilty to multiple charges of sexual assault stretching back to 1995 on terrified young girls he accosted at knifepoint.
Ibata Hexamer, who also worked for the municipal political party COPE during two of Vancouver's civic elections, entered the pleas last week in B.C. Supreme Court, Crown spokesman Neil MacKenzie said on Wednesday.
Mr. Hexamer was arrested in December, 2010, after an intense investigation by a special police task force known as Project Scourge.
The six charges cover attacks on four victims, one just six years old.
The first assault took place against a 13-year-old schoolgirl in 1995 on the grounds of Lord Nelson school in east Vancouver. The attacker said he had a knife.
In 2007, two 14-year-olds were threatened with a knife, then sexually assaulted in a wooded area of Delta.
And in 2009, a six-year-old girl out walking with her brother and a friend in Surrey was grabbed at knifepoint and sexually assaulted while her companions were ordered to get down on the ground and look away.
The girl's family has moved away from the area due to the emotional trauma of the incident.
Police recovered traces of the attacker's DNA in all three assaults, determined they belonged to the same person and eventually traced them to Mr. Hexamer.
Mr. MacKenzie said Mr. Hexamer pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault, three counts of sexual assault with a knife and two counts of unlawful confinement.
"The guilty pleas do void the necessity of complainants having to testify about incidents that occurred when they were young, and some of them are still comparatively young," he said.
Seventeen other charges against Mr. Hexamer in connection with the same three assaults have been dropped.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Oct. 9. Mr. Hexamer has been in custody since his arrest.
At the time of his arrest, COPE said Mr. Hexamer had held "minor administrative positions" with the party for the 2005 and 2008 municipal elections.
He had also served at various times as a personal assistant to COPE councillors Tim Louis, Fred Bass, Ellen Woodsworth and Tim Stevenson.
When told of Mr. Hexamer's arrest and the nature of the charges against him, Mr. Louis said he reacted with disbelief. "Obviously, the charges [show] that I did not know him very well."