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CALGARY - Just six weeks after his release from jail, a convicted sex offender is facing new charges in Calgary after allegedly inappropriately touching a woman he'd met at an LRT station.
Police believe Henri Jean Rusk, 52, met the woman at a train station Monday and took her to his place the same day.
Staff Sgt. Todd Zelensky said police happened to do a routine checkup on Rusk, who was being monitored by the police's High Risk Offender Program (HROP), and interrupted the end of an alleged incident outside Rusk's residence.
"We caught the incident during the commission and were able to intervene," said Zelensky.
"It was very good timing.
"I really consider this a very positive example of what the High Risk Offender Program does. It could have been potentially a lot worse had we not stepped in."
Rusk has an extensive history of "random" and severe" sexual assaults in Calgary and in other provinces, said Zelensky.
He was released in mid-February after serving a three-year sentence for convictions, the most recent of which involved an attack on a wheelchair-bound woman.
Rusk was given a total of 19 conditions to adhere to following his release, including one requiring him to wear a GPS electronic monitoring device, which was how police were able to retrace his footsteps to the train station.
The woman Rusk befriended there voluntarily returned to his apartment with him, where it is alleged he touched her inappropriately before she left in "distress," but not hurt, said Zelensky.
Police arrived to check up on Rusk just as the woman was leaving his home, said Zelensky.
"We became aware once the incident had progressed outside the residence," he said.
"She was in the process of leaving -- I wouldn't call it a struggle." He said high-risk offenders who are monitored are visited by cops anywhere from once a week to more than once a day.
Rusk, who remained in custody Wednesday afternoon, is charged with sexual assault and breaching his release conditions.
He's scheduled to appear in court April 8.
jenna.mcmurray@sunmedia.ca