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Edmonton police have arrested a man in connection with their investigation of the alleged drugging and sexual assault of several women who used popular dating apps.<\/p>\n
William McMullin, 56, is now facing multiple charges including sexual assault, administering a stupefying substance, assault with a weapon, voyeurism, unlawful confinement and criminal harassment.<\/p>\n
Police said they began their investigation in April 2025 when a woman reported to them that a man she met on a dating app had sexually assaulted her. Since then, other complainants have come forward with similar reports.<\/p>\n
Police said investigators pieced together four separate incidents, where a man connected with the women on apps like Facebook Dating, Bumble and Tinder.<\/p>\n
Investigators said they believe the man later invited the women into his house, where they allege he drugged and then sexually assaulted them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThese types of assaults are deeply troubling because they involve a calculated breach of trust,\u201d EPS Staff Sgt. Christa Laforce said in a news release Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She said she believes there may be additional complainants who have not come forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lena Betker, co-CEO of the Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton (SACE), said the non-profit has observed an uptick in sexual assault cases initiated through dating apps.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is really just because people are now using that as a tool to meet people,\u201d she said in an interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cSexual violence existed before dating apps did. But dating apps are another way to facilitate harm and abuse.”<\/p>\n
Betker said she\u2019s concerned about the psychological toll this could have on the community, because it increases fear and anxiety in people who are using dating apps.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ultimately, she said the onus falls on the perpetrators.<\/p>\n
\u201cSexual violence isn’t caused by online apps or by dating. It’s caused by someone deciding to harm another person,\u201d Betker said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf a survivor has experienced sexual violence while they’re out dating, the most important thing is for them to know it was not their fault and that support is available.\u201d<\/p>\n
McMullin is being held in remand, and is scheduled to appear in court on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 2 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":{"0":"post-561240","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-edmonton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}