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A verdict has been reached in the trial of a 62-year-old Calgary man accused of preying on several women who were employed in the city’s sex trade.
Richard Mantha was accused of abducting, drugging and sexually assaulting at least seven women at a rural property east of Calgary between September 2020 and March of 2023.
He initially pleaded not guilty to 20 charges against him.
His trial eventually proceeded on 16 counts related to six complainants after one of his alleged victims died.
Six of the charges were also dismissed during his trial.
An acreage on Vale View Road east of Chestermere in Rocky View County, where police carried out a large forensic investigation in April 2023. Richard Robert Mantha was later charged with several crimes, including kidnapping and sexual assault.
Global News
On Tuesday, Justice Judith Shriar from the Court of Kings Bench in Calgary delivered her verdict.
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She found him guilty on a total of six counts, including sexual assault, knowingly administering a noxious substance, uttering threats, assault with a weapon and suffocation in the commission of sexual assault.
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The judge dismissed an additional four charges.
Mantha’s trial began more than two years ago but faced numerous delays, mostly because of Mantha’s health, including two strokes and when he contracted COVID, forcing him to be put into isolation at the Calgary Remand Centre.
Mantha also fired several of his lawyers and initially demanded to be tried in French, although the trial eventually went ahead in English.
He also never took the stand in his own defence, so the trial relied on the credibility of the complainants.
Sentencing will take place at a later date that has yet to be determined.
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