Image Credit: FILE PHOTO
December 04, 2015 - 6:30 PM
KAMLOOPS - A man suspected of committing a serious sex assault in Kamloops six years ago was identified as a suspect after the Alberta courts ordered him to submit a DNA sample for breaking and entering a college campus last year.
On Nov. 27, Kamloops RCMP said Taylor James Howard Matchett was arrested in Edmonton on a Canada-wide warrant earlier this month. Police allege Matchett’s DNA connects to a 2009 sex assault investigation that had no suspects until now.
Cpl. Cheryl Bush, a spokesperson for Kamloops RCMP, wouldn’t say when or how police made the connection to Matchett’s DNA, except that “a recent DNA profile was identified through the National DNA Database.”
But infoNEWS.ca has learned in January 2015, Matchett pleaded guilty to a break and enter stemming from a Nov. 22, 2014 incident at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.
Anna Batchelor, media relations for the Edmonton Police Service, says officers arrested two males connected to an attempted break and enter on campus.
According to the Edmonton criminal court registry, an Edmonton Provincial Court judge sentenced Matchett to a 90-day jail term for the offence. He was also ordered to submit a sample of his DNA into the national registry.
Staff with the St. Albert registry say Matchett has several outstanding charges in the city where he’s accused of committing 12 additional break and enters between Dec. 2013 and March 2014.
Authorities have transferred the suspect to Kamloops to face charges of sex assault involving a weapon and use of an imitation firearm in the commission of an offence.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Glynn Brothen at gbrothen@infonews.ca, or call 250-319-7494. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
News from © InfoTel News Ltd, 2015