WARNING: This story contains graphic details and may not be suitable for all readers
A sentencing decision is expected to be handed down on Wednesday for a serial sexual predator who pleaded guilty in a cold case dating back more than 15 years.
Crown counsel is seeking three years in prison for Arturo Garcia Gorjon, 46, who pleaded guilty in June to three counts of sexual assault against three different women in Vancouver in 2009 and 2010.
Defence counsel is suggesting a conditional sentence of two years less a day, followed by three years of probation.
In a powerful address to the court in October, the survivor of the last of the three terrifying attacks spoke directly to Garcia Gorjon.
“Every Christmas, I’m reminded of that night forever,” she said, looking her attacker in the eye.
“This whole experience has been a nightmare,” the victim, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, said through tears.
According to an agreed statement of facts read by ad hoc Crown prosecutor Gloria Ng, the woman was returning to her West End apartment shortly before 3 a.m. on Dec. 24, 2010, after attending her staff Christmas party.
As she searched for her key in front of the lobby door, Garcia Gorjon approached from behind and asked, ‘Can you find your house keys?’ before stating, ‘I have keys.’
The court heard he pushed the victim into the lobby entrance glass door, then got down on his knees and put his head up her skirt, where he moved his tongue around her crotch area.
As he kept his head up the victim’s skirt, Garcia Gorjon pushed her into the glass again, according to the agreed statement of facts, before the victim yelled, “Are you f—ng kidding me?”
“He misused my trust and kindness … attacking me like a predator,” the victim bravely recounted in court.
In her victim impact statement, the woman said she is constantly battling with dark moments stemming from the attack.
“Arturo took something from me that was not his,” she told the court.
The survivor of the second attack on Nov. 15, 2009, read her victim impact statement to the court via Zoom.
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“During the sexual assault, I felt completely powerless,” said the victim, whose identity is also protected by a publication ban.
“The amount of pain that I felt in that moment was immense,” she recalled.
According to the agreed statement of facts, the victim was attacked as she entered her West End apartment building at 1:45 a.m.
Garcia Gorjon slipped in the door behind her and put his hand under her skirt.
The victim pulled away and screamed but Garcia Gorjon continued to advance.
When she gave chase and yelled, her attacker got in a white sedan that was double-parked outside and escaped.
“It had felt as though something essential had been taken from me and something I could never get back,” the survivor said.
The woman, who was 25 at the time of the sexual assault, said her partner encouraged her to report it, and she’s grateful she did or “we wouldn’t be here now.”
Knowing Garcia Gorjon was at large for so long with the potential to hurt others before he was caught was “an incredibly heavy burden to bear,” she told the court.
The first sexual assault happened in the early hours of Canada Day 2009, when a 20-year-old woman was attacked while walking with a friend near Granville Island.
The victim, according to the agreed statement of facts, was thrown onto the grass near the Granville bridge, where Garcia Gorjon repeatedly pushed his head into her crotch.
The victim’s friend pulled him off, and he fled.
Garcia Gorjon’s DNA was found on the underwear of all three victims.
In 2011, Vancouver police began taking another look at the 2009 Granville Island and West End sexual assaults and a third attack in Yaletown in 2010 in the hopes of finding new evidence.
It wasn’t until 12 years later, however, that they were able to link the fourth sex assault on Christmas Eve 2010 to the other three, the critical break in the case that ultimately led them to Garcia Gorjon, who was arrested in Regina in July 2023.
A fourth charge of sexual assault in relation to the alleged 2010 Yaletown attack is expected to be dropped.
Ng told the court Garcia Gorjon’s actions caused “profound and enduring harm” — including “deep psychological consequences.”
The ad hoc Crown counsel noted physical intervention was needed in all three incidents, and the victims “had to fight back to stop Mr. Garcia Gorjon.”
Ng likened his actions to a predator lying in wait to come across vulnerable women late at night to take advantage of them.
“These assaults were highly invasive violations of all three women,” said Ng.
While Garcia Gorjon has no prior criminal record, Ng stressed his conduct was not an isolated incident and instead, a deliberate and repeated pattern of offending involving multiple incidents and three separate victims.
Defence counsel Ed Cooper said his client was working in hospitality at the time of the offences, and had started to use drugs after hours.
Cooper told the court that Garcia Gorjon has since attended Sex Addicts Anonymous and wants to write an apology letter to his victims.
Garcia Gorjon, who was born and raised in Mexico City, immigrated to Canada in 2006 and became a Canadian citizen in 2012.
Judge Reg Harris asked defence counsel if Garcia Gorjon’s convictions would jeopardize his citizenship. Cooper said he didn’t know and hadn’t considered that.
“I don’t have any knowledge that it would,” he responded.
Cooper said Garcia Gorjon, a journeyman electrician, previously worked in mills and factories installing very high voltage, but has lost three jobs since his arrest.
His client, he said, has had to stop working as an industrial electrician and is now employed by an electrical company, where his wages are 25 per cent less.
In seeking two years less a day of house arrest or, in the alternative, two years less a day in jail followed by three years of probation, Cooper noted the offences are 15 years old and said Garcia Gorjon has not breached his bail conditions in over two years, and is willing to participate in counselling.
