By Martin Kuebler
A man arrested in November after a series of campus sex assaults pled guilty last month and was sentenced to six months in jail.
Nick Belcourt, 26, admitted he had sexually assaulted two female Ryerson students and trapped another female student in the journalism lounge in the Rogers Communication Centre.
On Dec. 10, less than another month after he was arrested, Belcourt pled guilty. He is now in Toronto’s Don Jail.
On Nov. 7 Ryerson security launched a campus wide undercover operation to hunt for a man who had sexually assaulted a student on campus the previous day.
That afternoon plain-clothed security officers were waiting for Belcourt in the journalism lounge, where he had been spotted the day before.
At his preliminary hearing, Belcourt described his encounter with the officers.
“I talked to Ryerson security. They made it clear my presence wasn’t wanted there,” said Belcourt.
Ryerson security tipped off the Toronto police, who arrested Belcourt a week later at a men’s hostel where he had been living. He was charged with sexual assault, assault and forcible confinement.
Belcourt is originally from Ottawa and had been living at the hostel for three months.
At his preliminary hearing, he admitted to having a drug addiction. And it was disclosed that he had previously been convicted of sexual assault.
Belcourt was bold in his Ryerson attacks, approaching students in public places during the day. In one case, he followed a student off the street into Jorgenson Hall, and in another he approached a student in the cafeteria.
Belcourt would grope the breasts of his victims, and then flee.
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