Man pleads guilty to vicious 2003 sex assault of senior

Warning: This story contains content that may be disturbing to some readers. Discretion is advised.

On Good Friday in 2003, a 78-year-old woman was violently raped and robbed outside her apartment in the Jane Street and Eglinton Avenue area.  The victim was left terrified and the attack left seniors in the area fearful.

For months, police canvassed the neighbourhood looking for witnesses, put up posters depicting a composite sketch of the suspect, and Crime Stoppers released a re-enactment video. The case eventually went cold, but investigators never gave up.

On Wednesday, Sept. 16, more than 23 years later, Barry Cory Ernest pleaded guilty to sexual assault causing bodily harm and robbery, admitting that he was the sexual predator responsible.

The cold case is just the latest case solved thanks to the advancements of Investigative Genetic Geneaology (IGG), where police compare DNA uploaded to public geneology websites with crime scene DNA.

Det. Ann-Marie Tupling from the Toronto Police Sex Crimes Unit – Cold Case section, looked on in court, clearly relieved the predator who had eluded police for years, was finally behind bars and had finally pleaded guilty.

The victim, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, was not in court. Assistant Crown attorney Ari Linds told Superior Court Justice Catherine H. Rhinelander that the woman died in 2017 at the age of 92.

According to an agreed statement of facts, the retiree was walking home to Outlook Manor, an assisted living building for seniors on April 18, 2003, around 7 p.m. after doing some last-minute Easter shopping at the Jane Park plaza nearby.

The woman, who relied on a cane to walk at the time because she had recently broken her toes and had an operation on her hip, noticed a man on the ground level of the parkade near the building entrance. She assumed he was an elderly person who lived there and did not pay much attention to that person.

The facts state the man suddenly grabbed her by her hands, then put his arm around her neck and throat and did so suddenly, which she later described in her police statement as being “choked and abducted.” He dragged her to a secluded side entrance near a stairwell and told police, “he was so strong … I couldn’t talk or breathe – I was crying. I thought he was going to … choke me to death.”

At the foot of the stairwell, the woman said, “Please don’t hurt me. I’ll give you anything you want if you don’t hurt or kill me.”

The assailant told the senior to shut up and asked her what she had in her purse, demanding her to throw the contents of the purse out which she did.  The woman told her attacker she had $5, saying, “I’m sorry, I just came back from shopping. I don’t have any more money.”

Ernest also demanded she take off her birthstone ring, a gift from her late husband. A watch she had recently purchased for about $175 was also stolen.

The senior told investigators that her assailant seemed angry she didn’t have more valuables in her possession.

After robbing her, the man told her to “go up the stairs” and to “hurry up.” She told him “I can’t. I have a cane,” and he tried rushing her up the stairs.

The facts state Ernest sodomized her, and forced oral sex before raping the woman. During the attack, she begged him not to kill her.

Ernest eventually got up and told her not to move for five to 10 minutes telling the woman he was coming back. She said “thank you” and he thanked her.

After about five minutes, she finally got up. She went down the stairs, picked up her things and ran as fast as she could to the rear entrance of the building.

When she got inside her apartment, she called 911 to report the rape and robbery.

She told the operator her name, said “I’m a senior and I was robbed, sodomized and raped.” The woman, who was crying, told the operator that “everything hurts” and that she was “scared”.

Forensic investigators collected evidence from the crime scene. In his July 22, 2003 report, Gerry Alderson, a forensic biologist at the Centre for Forensic Sciences, processed swabs taken from the wet spots on the concrete at the crime scene. A male DNA profile suitable for comparison was also generated.

A composite sketch of the suspect was also created. According to the facts, the composite has a close relationship to a 2001 photograph on file with the Toronto Police of Barry Cory Ernest, aka Cory Christie.

In 2017, the victim died at the age of 92 but the case was deemed suitable for investigative genetic genealogy (IGG.)

Court heard that on April 27, 2024, police doing surveillance on Ernest recovered a Tim Horton’s coffee cup Ernest had discarded from a park in Niagara-on-the-Lake. The cup was brought to the Centre for Forensic Sciences and Gerald Alderson, the same forensic biologist who had processed the semen on the concrete in 2003, processed the coffee cup from Ernest.

The DNA profile from the coffee cup was found to be greater than a trillion times more likely to be from the same source as the male DNA profile from the semen on the concrete than if it originates from an unknown person, unrelated to them.

On June 26, 2024, Ernest was arrested and has been in custody ever since. Ernest told police in his statement he prefers to be identified the name Cory Christie and why.

Ernest will return to court next month when a date for sentencing will be scheduled.

The court has also requested a psychological assessment for Ernest before sentencing.