Surviving a Predator | 7
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Hey, it's Nancy. Before we begin today, I just wanted to let you know that you can listen to Crime Beat early and ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. He's the most terrifying serial killer you've never heard of. Haddon Clark has confessed to several murders, but investigators say he could have over 100 victims. At the center of the mayhem, a cellmate of Haddon's that was able to get key evidence into Haddon's murder spree across America.

I need to warn you before we start today. In this episode, you're going to hear graphic details and court testimony about sex crimes, and it's extremely disturbing.

If I'm being fully honest, I'll admit I'm a pretty cautious person. It's likely the result of years and years of crime reporting and everything I've witnessed along the way. It's not like the city I live in is dangerous or that I'm paranoid. And it's not like I don't take risks. I do, but they're calculated risks.

and I like to try to be aware of my surroundings. If I go for a walk, I only put one headphone on so I can still hear what's going on and I always take note of the people around me. It's kind of like I'm subconsciously preparing to be a witness. I also think being a woman makes me extra careful. She knew somebody had been following her or she thought she'd lost her mind that somebody was watching her.

If you think of the worst possible nightmare you can imagine and multiply it by about a thousand and you'll be getting a little bit closer to how horrible it was. I'm Nancy Hixt, a crime reporter for Global News. Today on Crime Beat, I'll share the devastating impact of a sexual predator. The story of one man who can only be described as a monster.

There was an incident that happened very early on in my career that stole away my sense of security. It happened nearly 20 years ago. Police sent out a media release warning the public about a convicted sex offender.

This man's crimes were so awful, police felt obligated to warn the public he was out of jail and he was considered not just a risk, but a high risk to reoffend. These warnings are rare and they're only put out when absolutely necessary. That's because police don't want the public to become desensitized. They need people to pay attention.

The risk these offenders pose is real. In this particular case, the convicted sex offender had served every single day of his sentence for sexual assault, unlawful confinement, and gross indecency. Police called him a sexual sadist. As expected, I got assigned to the story.

My boss asked me to track the man down and see if he'd be willing to do an interview, something I've done many times and continue to do. But that day, before I could even leave the newsroom, there was a call for me. It was him, the sexual sadist. I took the call, but before I could even get the words out to ask for an interview, he asked to meet up with me.

I thought to myself, this is going to be easier than I thought. What he said next took me completely off guard. He told me we should meet, go for pizza, and then have sex. That's where he lost me. I was quite obviously completely creeped out. I told him not to call me anymore and hung up.

Any thought of pursuing this interview was completely gone from my mind. And that was the end of the story. Or so I thought. What I didn't know was this man had been watching me on the news for years while in prison. The next day, I got a call from police. The officer told me there was a sex offender staying at a local homeless shelter.

He was telling everyone about his girlfriend, a crime reporter named Nancy Hickst. And that's the moment everything changed. Police asked me to change my daily routine. I had to take a different way home every single day. And investigators wanted me to get a home alarm system. This went on and on for years.

The offender would send me lengthy, inappropriate, creepy handwritten letters, and I never knew if or when he'd show up or what he would do. This only ended about a year ago, when I was notified of his death. But I still think of him. I hate the power he had over my life. But I got lucky.

My experience is so minor compared to the cases I've reported on. One that really stands out happened back in 2003. A random attack on a young woman in her own home. If you think what happened to me was unsettling, the story you're about to hear is so much worse. And I need to warn you, it's extremely disturbing.

It's what I fear most as a woman. It was late summer of 2003. Beyonce and Jay-Z were on top of the charts with "Crazy in Love." And people were still talking about that kiss between Britney Spears and Madonna during their MTV Video Music Awards performance. For Nicole, it was a time of amazing opportunities.

At 19, she had everything going for her. She was beautiful, smart, driven, focused, and she had an unbelievably kind heart. Nicole was determined to make the world a better place. In fact, she spent her spare time reading and visiting people living in nursing homes.

She had just moved to Calgary and was excited to pursue her dream of becoming a professional dancer. Unbelievably excited. Unbelievably. She was, this was her dream. That's Nicole's mom, Lori. I should take a minute here and let you know that Nicole and Lori are not their real names.

For reasons that will soon become very clear, I've given them different names for this podcast. The move to Calgary was a big deal for both Nicole and her parents. Calgary was many miles from home and a very big city compared to where she grew up. It absolutely was a big step. She'd always been, she'd been in the city for two years, but very, very close to home.

so that we could, we saw her regularly and visited her a few times a week. And when she moved to Calgary, it was huge because she now was completely on her own in the city. That's why Nicole's mom and dad made the long trek to Calgary to help her find an apartment. Safety was a top priority. There was lock and intercom systems that there were actually, there were bars on the windows

It was within a block of her where she would be attending classes. So all of those things, and we were very comfortable with the people and they'd never had any problems in the building. It all seemed like a perfect fit. When Nicole wasn't at school, she was working. She got a job as a barista at a local coffee shop.

Her family had helped her with tuition but she had to work to pay her rent and other expenses. She never ever partied. She doesn't even drive. It's not like she was out doing crazy things and being in stupid places. She did absolutely everything to live a decent productive life.

with huge dreams. Really, the only thing wrong at that time was a strange, nagging feeling that she was being watched. She didn't tell anyone about it at the time. She brushed it off, thinking she was being paranoid. It must just be part of adjusting to life in a big city.

A quick trip home to see her family for the September long weekend was a welcome break. When she got back to Calgary, she finally started to feel like she was settling in. She called her parents every single day. Their support meant the world to her. On Friday, September 12th, at about 1:00 in the afternoon, Nicole had a great chat with her dad.

She was excited to tell him she had successfully set up her computer all by herself. He told me he'd spoken to her and she was so excited and she'd hooked up her internet and she could now go back and forth and use Skype and do all the other things that she wanted to do and we could be in closer touch without having to have long distance charges because she didn't want to run up phone bills and so all of that conversation and it was like I can do technology and

And I'm following my dream like life is good. It was several hours later when Laurie got home from work that she noticed a missed call on her home phone display. There was a voicemail message and the words she was about to hear would haunt her forever. It was the Calgary Police Service and just saying that it was urgent that I contact them regarding my daughter.

Lori couldn't think what the police would possibly be calling about. Nicole had just checked in with her father. She was fine. Then when I called, they wouldn't tell me anything. I get a message that it's urgent, and you're telling me you have no information?

In the end I called back and I said, "Look, this is ridiculous." And I was angry by then. "You're telling me my daughter's in trouble of some sort? What happened?" And they finally then connected me to the sex crimes unit and my heart stopped. "What are you talking about? That is impossible." "She was on her way to class two hours ago. What do you mean?" Like, no! Laurie was in disbelief.

the sex crimes unit. She pressed police for more information. They finally told me that they had no idea she'd been taken by ambulance. They had no idea what condition she was in. I didn't know if she was dead or alive. Lori hung up and called the hospital.

But she was told there was no record of her daughter being admitted. I was shaking so hard I was having a terrible time making any phone calls. I kept calling and I was just livid. And I demanded to talk to somebody else and at that point and then I got a finally got a call back from the police and she was in the hospital but they had taken her to a secure unit where they won't identify them to anyone.

for their safety. Nicole's younger brother was home at the time. He was 13 years old. He saw the panic on his mom's face. He was sitting across the table watching me, tears running down his face because his sister was in huge trouble and he didn't know what had happened. I wouldn't call my husband. I actually called one of his co-workers because I knew how upset he would be and I didn't want him driving. So

They wouldn't tell him anything, they just brought him home. And they dropped him off here and they knew. I told them what had happened, but I didn't want him on the road alone. I called our daughter, she was in the middle of having her nails done, our older daughter in the city. I called her, she walked out with her nails half done and gathered her things to head to Calgary because everybody was converging. It was like the whole family just, everything stopped in our world and the focus was entirely on Calgary.

getting there for our daughter. At this point, Nicole's family had not been told what happened to her. They just knew it was bad. The next step was calling our daughter's boyfriend. He still lived in Edmonton and they'd been dating. He walked, he worked in a restaurant as a chef. He walked out of the kitchen and this by now is like five o'clock on a Friday night.

He walked out of the kitchen, went into the bathroom, punched a hole in the wall, and walked out of the restaurant. Finally, Laurie got a hold of a nurse who was caring for her daughter. And all she could say is, "I am so glad to hear from you." The first words out of our daughter's mouth were that she wanted her mom. I wasn't there for her. I was here. All of Nicole's loved ones got together and headed to Calgary.

Following the posted speed limit wasn't even an option in their minds. They raced to be by Nicole's side. Like maniacs. Flat out pedal to the metal all the way. It was ridiculous. It was the things that race through your mind and that's a long drive to just stew and wonder. The three-hour drive seemed like an eternity. And then when they finally arrived at the hospital, they had to wait.

Nicole was still being treated. So we're sitting, I can remember my kids sitting on the floor in the hallway back close to where she was and when they finally brought her back I went in first and then my husband came in and I just held her and all she could do is apologize. She was so sorry for what she had done to us. What are you talking about? He's going to kill you because I told the police.

He's going to come back and get me. And he has my information from where I live. He has my address. He knows where I live. He held her at knife point while he interrogated her, wanting personal family information. Nicole was badly beaten. Her ears were purple. He beat her so badly, her ears were purple. That's the first thing I saw. She had a huge mark on her throat. Her face was badly battered.

Nicole's family knew she had been sexually assaulted, but she was not ready to talk to them about it. She just said, I can't tell you. I don't want to hurt you with this. And it's like, it hurts me more to imagine. And finally, it was like, I think, I know I wrote it in my statement, and I think it was if you think of the worst possible nightmare you can imagine and multiply it by about a thousand and you'll be getting...

a little bit closer to how horrible it was. Calgary police detectives were investigating the attack. At that time, Monty Sparrow was the staff sergeant of the sex crimes unit. On September the 12th in 2003 at 1:30 in the afternoon in the 1000 block of 12 Avenue Southwest the female victim was in her residence at the time. Individual knocked on her door.

She opened the door. She couldn't understand what he was saying. She opened the door and spoke with him. She closed the door, went back into her kitchen and realized at that moment that the offender was in her kitchen. He punched her on the side of the head, dropped her to the ground, choked her with his hands to the point where she blacked out.

And when she gained consciousness, she was on her bed and he had covered her head with blankets and was beginning a sexual assault against her. The attack was incredibly violent. And when he was done, he took a photo of her from her bedroom and told her not to call police or he would come back and kill her. The neighbor girl was packing to go camping.

and they'd been loading their vehicle and inadvertently locked themselves out of the building in their trips back and forth packing their vehicle. So she knew our daughter was home and buzzed her on the intercom to say, "Can you please let us back in? We've locked ourselves out of the building." And at that point is when she said, "Help me, help me. I've been hurt." That's when my daughter pushed the buzzer on the intercom to let them in.

They took one look at her. There was, because they could see the police car right in front of the building, they raced out to ask for help. And it was a man and a woman together. And the male officer said, "No, no, you'll have to call 911. We're traffic. We don't do that." They said, "It's not our thing." But the lady officer, what I know is that the lady officer that was involved, and I don't know if that was one of the people that was involved in the case, I'm not sure.

But she said, are you kidding me? Yes, we're going in to help. And chose to go into the building and it all went from there. Nicole told detectives her attacker was a complete stranger. She thought he was a building maintenance worker. So when he asked to confirm her address, she went inside to write it down. In those few brief moments, he forced his way into her place,

and started choking her until she blacked out. When Nicole finally came to, her hands and legs were bound. She had been repeatedly raped. Police put out a media release alerting the public.

And that's when I first became aware of what had happened. We did do a press release after the first one, but it was very vague. It was a short description of the mail. There was not a lot to go on at the time. What I didn't know at the time was police didn't fully believe Nicole.

The fact the attack happened in Nicole's own apartment had left the officer assigned to the case with some doubts that it was in fact a stranger attack. Nicole did not know the investigator was having these doubts. She was just trying to survive, trying to be strong. She needed to be brave for her family. She answered every question investigators had.

Given her injuries, there was no doubt something had happened. But the primary investigator simply didn't buy her version of events. I have to tell you, the training police officers receive

On how to recognize signs of trauma has come a long ways in the 15 plus years since this attack happened. A classic example is some you may go up to a victim of a sexual assault and she's laughing. And that is that to when back in early days of policing you believe that she if she tells you anything she's not telling the truth.

Now with this trauma-informed training that we receive, it tells you that the victim can communicate a variety of ways after they've been traumatized. So in those days, the concern with the primary investigator was that she wasn't displaying the typical emotions of a victim of a sexual assault. What police know now is Nicole absolutely should have been believed.

The emotions she was showing were all completely normal signs of trauma. She was terrified. She worried the man would hold true to his threats and come find her and kill her or find her family and kill them. I got the phone calls night after night.

To make matters worse, there was the haunting reality that her attacker could very well follow through with his threats and come back for her.

We also had been told by the current manager at the apartment that she was sure he was back looking for her while she was home with us. Someone was at the building looking for her after we brought her home. Nicole's family moved her out of that building right after the attack. But she still went to school in the area. So she had to be in that neighborhood every single day.

she lived in constant fear that he would find her. A full forensic examination was done on Nicole at the hospital. Samples were sent away for DNA analysis. We were able to get DNA. So the DNA came back as not a match to anybody. What that meant was whoever raped Nicole was not in the data bank.

On March 26th in 2004,

The CPS received a call, a 911 call for a second sexual assault in the Beltline area and just a couple blocks away from the, so the 1200 block of 9th Street, southwest of a second offense. The attack happened at the exact same time of day, 1.30 in the afternoon.

The sex crimes unit at the Calgary Police Service is made up of just eight investigators. So when that call came in, given the time and details of what happened, it was immediately clear the two attacks were connected.

She heard someone running behind her toward the Beltline townhouse complex she lived in. She held the door. A man followed her into the building, pretending to be there to visit her next-door neighbor. She said she was suspicious and questioned the name of his friend. That's all she remembers before waking up in her bedroom naked, the man attacking her.

Details of the second attack were eerily similar to Nicole's. It was another vicious sexual assault. He physically attacked her first. Again, punching her in the face, knocking her and pushing her down to the floor. At that point, she blacked out. She came to in her bedroom, lying face down. And at that point, he sexually assaulted her. Just like in Nicole's case.

The offender covered the victim's head with a blanket. He beat her, raped her, and threatened her. If she called the cops, he would kill her. The similarities between the two attacks couldn't be ignored. So that was really what validated for us was this was a stranger attack. The same offender has attacked a second female in the same area of town with the almost exact same M.O.

The search for a serial rapist began. The community where the sexual assaults happened is located in downtown Calgary. It's known as the Beltline, and the offender soon became known as the Beltline Rapist.

It's one of Calgary's most densely populated neighbourhoods and created a perfect hunting ground for a predator. A lot of young women, it was just kind of an up-and-coming area at the time, starting to be developed, being a little bit more popular for people to live in. Two- and three-storey walk-up type apartment buildings. There were nightclubs in the area, a little bit more younger crowd living in the area. And if those were his targets, he was in the right area. Police officers

Police increased their presence in the neighborhood, both to try and solve the case and to help people feel more comfortable while this predator was on the loose. I remember talking to women in the area. They were in fear, wondering when this serial rapist would strike again. The person living with the greatest fear of all was Nicole.

She tried to keep pushing forward with her life despite the darkness that was consuming her. She worked a couple of jobs and it was very difficult because she didn't want to work alone. She refused to work alone. Nicole constantly battled anxiety, never knowing if or when her attacker would come back for her.

She made sure she had an escort absolutely everywhere she went. She would not leave the house without an escort. A friend, yeah. And the first day, actually the very first day she did, she tried and absolutely had a meltdown about a block from her old apartment. She'd go a different route because she didn't want to go past the old building. Yes.

And it turned out that when she had that meltdown was moments before the other girl was attacked. As she walked past her building, he must have been there at that time. She was there moments, she walked by it moments before it happened. Just think about that for a minute. Nicole walked by the second victim's home as the attack was happening. It could have been her a second time.

Here's what police knew at that point. They had DNA from both attacks. Evidence that confirmed their suspicions. It was the same guy. The problem was, he wasn't in any data bank. They knew he was extremely violent, and that he was comfortable with the Beltline neighborhood. And they knew he could strike again at any moment.

But investigators needed more if they were ever going to catch this serial rapist. One of the investigative steps we took at that time was, and we hadn't used it in the past, was we worked with a hypnotist. The sketch of the offender was created by veteran Calgary police investigator Detective Ren Lafreniere. He told me there was extra care taken during this hypnosis

to make sure the victim wasn't traumatized any further. They needed to take the fear out of looking at her attacker. To do this, the psychiatrist told the victim to imagine she was looking at a TV show, that she could watch it, but she wouldn't be hurt by it. And looking at her attacker would help police catch him.

With the help of the psychiatrist, the victim was able to provide detail and at one point I realized that I would have to have the victim open her eyes and look at it because it was my version of what the offender looked like.

She was able to do that and it took the fear and the anxiety out of it for her. And she was able to help me change that drawing to what she believed the offender looked like. Lafreniere had brought the Beltline Rapist to life on paper. He was a very distinct looking individual and it was a very accurate drawing. By the description, he's olive skinned, shaved head, shorter in stature, sturdy, solid guy.

So we put the composite drawing out to the public and we started receiving tips. I remember the day that sketch was released. The drawing was pretty basic but there was also something about it that looked very distinct. It didn't take long before tips began pouring in to police.

There was one tip that really stood out and that man became their primary target. He just looked to be a really good suspect for what we're looking for. This could be potentially a good tip. This suspect matched the physical description police had of the attacker and he had a history of violence.

The primary investigator from the first attack was replaced by the primary investigator assigned to the second attack. She was now in charge of managing both cases. At that point, police worried the man now known as the Beltline Rapist was capable of killing his next victim.

We put surveillance on that person 24-7 because of the potential of that person attacking another female. The more police dug into the suspect's history, the more concerned they became that there would be another victim. I recall...

The surveillance, our surveillance team saying, this guy is dangerous. He is going to assault somebody. We have to follow him 24-7. Just the way he was treating women, the way he objectified women at the Safeway in the Beltline, they were concerned. They actually came in at some points to thinking they needed to intervene. The way he was treating women at the Safeway, very, very sexually overt. What police needed was a sample of this man's DNA.

To do that, they needed to collect a "cast-off" piece of evidence, something that would have the suspect's DNA on it, but that he voluntarily abandoned or left behind in a public place. You've likely seen this on TV shows.

But collecting cast-off evidence is something investigators have to carefully plan and execute. Cast-off is an opportunity where somebody has used a cup, a straw, anything that would be touching their saliva from their mouth.

Generally gum, anything that would be spit out. Cigarettes have a lot of DNA on them after a person has smoked. As soon as that person has either thrown it into garbage or put it out into the public domain to state it that way, we take a chance, seize that. In this case, police seized a cup the suspect had left behind. Detectives waited. It had to be him.

They were working against the clock with an incredibly volatile individual. Just days later, the DNA tests came back. And then the DNA came back and we had the wrong guy. DNA confirmed suspect number one was not the Beltline Rapist. The news was a huge blow to investigators and also disconcerting.

To know there was another man out there who police knew was violent and now he would no longer be under police watch. Sparrow said he doesn't know whatever happened to that man or if he went on to offend. They needed to move on.

Thankfully, there was a solid second suspect on their list. A tip that came in from one of our officers who had attended a call where an offender who matched the description perfectly had been in a domestic with his girlfriend. And she described to the officers sexual offenses that were similar to what

he had done to these two girls. He did give that tip right away after, but at that time we were focused on target number one. Suspect number two looked exactly like the composite sketch of the predator they were looking for. Because we were wrong on the first one, we had to be a little bit more careful what we did with the second one because we had a number of suspects and he was our best number two.

That meant no 24/7 surveillance. Instead, police focused on the time of day this offender was known to attack, around 1:00 to 1:30 in the afternoon. Sparrow set up a meeting between his investigators and officers from the Calgary Police Strike Force Unit. That's an elite team of officers. They're specially trained in surveillance and intelligence gathering.

Again, to confirm their suspicions, they would need a DNA sample. But they didn't have time to waste. They needed to be able to get the cast-off evidence quickly. They came up with an undercover operation. And it was by far the most unique cast-off scenario I've ever come across covering the crime beat. A gum challenge.

Remember the old Pepsi challenge, where there were booths set up in malls or special events? People running the tests had two cups. One had Pepsi inside, the other had Coke. Participants would then do a blind taste test. They would pick which drink they preferred. It's exactly the kind of operation police were going to try and pull off.

Only they were testing chewing gum. It was a gum challenge and then you would determine which gum tasted better and then you'd fill out a little survey and then we would go into, in this situation, we went into a coffee shop that he was in and he took the challenge. Police took this test one step further. They needed to make sure their new suspect would want to participate.

Given police were targeting a man wanted for the serial rape of two young women Sparrow said it wasn't hard to figure out what would make him the most willing participant. We chose an individual that we felt that he would be extremely attracted to and we were correct. We know what he's attracted to.

We know what, how we believe we know how he would respond to a female that looks like she looked like. And because she looked very much like the two victims, it was his target zone was what she looked like. And the way she was dressed was, was assisted us in or assisted him in the desire to do whatever she wanted to do. You can use your imagination a little bit here.

Basically, the undercover officer needed to look attractive. In the most stereotypical and chauvinistic sense of the word. That included some rather provocative clothing. And it became very clear, very quickly, police were spot on in their prediction of how the suspect would react to the scenario they created.

He walks in with a lollipop in his mouth. So he has a lollipop in his mouth at the coffee shop. He immediately targets onto her for various reasons and becomes a willing participant in this gum tasting test.

Not only did the man participate in the gum taste test, providing the desperately needed cast-off DNA evidence to investigators, he also willingly gave a second DNA sample. He willingly gave her a lollipop that he had in his mouth. Police had what they needed. But was it him? Was this the Beltline Rapist?

The gum and the lollipop were sent off for DNA testing. By now, it was about four weeks since the attack on the second victim. Police were growing more and more concerned there would be another attack. And then, news from the lab. DNA comes back and it's this person that we're looking at. DNA matches on both of the offenses with this individual. It was him.

Suspect #2 was the Beltline Rapist. Police didn't waste any time in making the arrest. I can tell you, this was not a typical arrest. To paint a better picture of how this went down, there were no lights and sirens. No "stop right there and put your hands up."

This was extremely covert, precise and quick. He was on the sidewalk, walking on the sidewalk. A van pulled up and four burly men had him on the ground within a second. He didn't have time to take a breath. They put him to the ground very quickly and arrested him. The Beltline Rapist was finally off the streets. So who was this monster?

the man who viciously violated two young women in their own homes in Calgary. His name was Wafid Dalla. The 38-year-old lived in a rental suite in an older-style two-story home, just blocks away from the two victims. Police searched his place. All of Dalla's belongings were boxed up.

Investigators believe Dilan knew suspicion was on him and was planning to leave the city and head to Toronto. Our understanding is that people started to identify him and he altered his looks.

and he started to realize that the heat was on him. That's a clip from my interview with Monty Sparrow right after DeLaw's arrest. What we've learned about this individual in the last two days is that he's been very difficult to pin down to a certain location because he tends to not tell the truth. Sparrow also discovered DeLaw may have called police during the manhunt.

looking to correct investigators on details of the suspect. We received a phone call early in the investigation from an individual who was angry that we had called him a European. In my story that day, I showed a split screen, a sketch of the suspect on the left and an actual photo of Wafid Dalla on the right. They were remarkably alike.

Immediately after his arrest, DeLaw was taken to Calgary Police Headquarters. He's given all of his rights and right to call a lawyer and then he's questioned. Police quickly learned one significant detail about the Beltline Rapist. He hates women.

So the detectives were women. He hated women. He hated the prosecutor. He hated the judge. They were all females. He has a hate for women. Detectives were never able to figure out what was behind that hate. DeLaw was not one of those offenders who was going to offer up a confession. But police didn't need a confession in this case.

Investigators had what they believed was undeniable proof that Dalla sexually assaulted both young women. They had his DNA. I'm going to take a minute now to tell you what I've learned about Wafid Dalla. Dalla was originally from Algeria and he was not a Canadian citizen.

According to documents I obtained from the Immigration and Refugee Board, DeLaw came to Canada about six years earlier, in 1997. He landed in Montreal. That's where he made a refugee claim. About a year later, DeLaw was granted refugee protection status. Normally, that would mean he'd be eligible to become a permanent resident. But DeLaw's application was refused.

He was convicted of several relatively minor criminal charges in 1999, right when he moved to Calgary. He was found guilty of shoplifting under $5,000, two counts of assault, and mischief causing damage under $5,000. He was fined $300 and ordered to pay $75 restitution. Dela had been unemployed for six months.

That's the same time period between his first and second attacks. At that same time, he also got news about his status in Canada. DeLas' brush with the law meant he failed the criminal record check necessary for permanent residency. In 2003, his application was formally turned down.

You might wonder why any of this matters, because Dalla was in custody anyway. But this is extremely important information, and it would have a huge impact on Dalla in the coming years. I'll explain more about that later. In 2005, nearly two years after the first attack, Dalla stood trial. He was accused of raping both young women.

I remember sitting in court. I watched DeLaw as he sat in the prisoner's box. He showed no emotion, as graphic details of the sexual assaults were presented by the prosecution. And it was just the arrogance and the indifference to the pain that he'd caused. Nicole had to face her attacker in court. She asked her parents to stay out of the courtroom when she testified.

She didn't want them to hear what Dala had done to her. She didn't want us to hear it in the courtroom because she said, I can't say it in front of you, Mom. I won't be able to get through it. And it's funny, the comments people made is how stoic she was. And she said, I can only do that if you're not there. Because if I look at you, I'm going to crumble. I need to stop and warn you one more time. These details are extremely disturbing.

Nicole testified a man grabbed her by the throat and choked her with his hands. She tried to scream and kick, but he stopped her. He lifted her off the floor and she said she thought her eyes were going to pop out from the pressure as he continued to choke her. That's when she blacked out. Nicole woke up on her bed, her attacker on top of her, pulling off her clothes.

She kicked him, but he grabbed her throat and choked her again. He threatened to kill her. He hit her full force with his open hand. Nicole said it was the hardest she'd ever been hit. He put her hands behind her back and tied her up, and then bound her feet. He gagged her and covered her head with a blanket and raped her.

Nicole said he took his time assaulting her. He would stop and then rape her again. She said the second attack was even more vicious and painful. The man told Nicole he killed the last girl because she wasn't quiet, and then he said he wanted to have her again. Nicole begged for him to stop. She remembered he checked under the blanket and saw her tears were real.

It was only then he stopped. The man took down her name and other personal information, and he threatened her to never tell anyone what had happened. Details of this case were awful. I was hearing all of my own worst fears being recounted by a young woman who had lived through these horrors.

The evidence against DeLaw was overwhelming. But Defence came up with a challenge. They argued DeLaw's rights had been violated under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Remember that gum taste challenge I told you about earlier? That undercover sting operation to get DeLaw's DNA was now being used by his Defence.

Sparrow said the fact investigators got both the gum and the lollipop assisted the prosecution. He handed her the lollipop so that he could chew the gum. So when it came to court and there was argument about the admissibility of the gum because of his willingness and entrapment, 100% lucky on our part that he had a lollipop in his mouth. When the gum became a question in court...

We fell back on the lollipop. So we argued that, Your Honour, we also have a lollipop and it has also been DNA tested. And then the particulars of the lollipop were disclosed in court and the judge was satisfied that that was not entrapment. I still believe that if all we had was the gum, we wouldn't have lost on entrapment. The judge would have still sided with us.

In 2006, Wafid Dalla was found guilty of two counts of break, enter, and commit sexual assault with a weapon, sexual assault with a weapon, overcoming resistance by choking, forcible confinement, assault, and three counts of uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm. The prosecution fought to have Dalla declared a dangerous offender.

That classification is only given to the very worst of the worst offenders, like Paul Bernardo, who kidnapped, tortured, and killed two teenage girls in the early 90s. The prosecution was successful. DeLaw was given an indeterminate sentence, meaning he wasn't going to get out of prison anytime soon.

But DeLaw was not about to take his punishment without a fight. He took his challenge of the gum taste test to the Alberta Court of Appeal and then all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. But Canada's top court refused to hear the appeal. His convictions stand. After 10 years in prison, DeLaw was granted his first taste of freedom.

The serial rapist was granted day parole. When I found out he was on parole it was because I found it. I saw it as a news feed from Global News.

Good evening. We have an update tonight on one of our city's most notorious sex offenders. The Beltline Rapist has been granted day parole. The convicted violent predator terrified Calgary women more than a decade ago. But as Nancy Hicks reports, his glimpse of freedom comes with a catch. DeLaw is not a Canadian citizen. He came to Canada illegally from Algeria in 1997. And the parole board's ruling will ensure he's sent back.

Should you be released on either day parole or full parole, you would be deported to your country of origin where you have the support of several family members who are aware of your criminality. The decision to grant Dallat day parole was a necessary catalyst to get him removed from Canada. Interestingly, Dallat didn't oppose his deportation. He told officials he welcomed it.

Dalla testified during a hearing by the Immigration and Refugee Board. He said he was happy to return to his home country of Algeria. Just days after his day parole was granted, Wafid Dalla was put on a plane and deported. He is banned from ever returning to Canada. I can tell you that ban doesn't mean a lot to Nicole and her family.

they will always live with the fear that he could come back. He got in once. Who's to say? We know how sneaky he is. And our daughter was so traumatized and all the threats that he would come back and get her. I know the chance is remote, but it happened once. Why couldn't it happen again? Just over a year ago, I got a message on my Facebook crime page.

A woman told me she was trying to return some credit cards to their rightful owner. She said her and her husband had found them while out for a walk in a rural area in northern Alberta. The name on the credit cards was Larry Hickst. That's my dad. In early 2018, my parents' farmhouse, the home I grew up in, was hit by thieves. They took all kinds of stuff, including my dad's wallet.

The woman who messaged me had found my dad's stolen credit cards dumped in a ditch several hours away from my parents' farm. I gave the woman a call, and while we got caught up in discussing the break-in, she said something that stuck with me through the entire hour-long conversation. She said I looked familiar, that maybe I had covered a case her family was involved in.

Before I could let her go, I had to find out more about what case she was talking about. When she told me the name of the offender, I instantly got a knot in my stomach. Wafid Dalla, the Beltline Rapist. Her daughter was Nicole, the first of Dalla's two victims. Since then, I've had a lot of talks with Lori, Nicole's mother.

She has never spoken to a journalist about what happened to her daughter. But she agreed to be part of this podcast. She's trusted me to share how her family has been impacted by this monster. That's part of what made me believe that maybe it's time that I spoke about it. Because having talked to you and gotten to know you away from the courtroom, I guess made me feel safer.

I remember those days in the courtroom. My heart broke for what the victims and their families were going through. The fact is, years later, they're still going through it. He totally stole a piece of her, a huge piece of her. But it has, what we've seen come back, the sparkle every now and again. You can find it if you dig deep enough.

The nightmare caused by Wafid Dalla's actions will never go away. He was evil, he was cruel, he was... My heart hurts, my heart aches for what happened and what I can't take back, I can't take away from her. Lori said her once innocent daughter, who always saw the best in people, was stolen.

For months, she would wear dark sunglasses and big floppy hats, trying to hide. She felt all eyes were on her. Nicole was forced to deal with the darkest life had to offer. Forced to become a survivor. Now her, when I talked to her about it, she said, there's nothing I can do to change it. And it's made me who I am today.

The strength, the courage, that girl is made of steel. That she has endured what she has and that she's come forward and it's like she's recreated herself. Our perspective, it was almost like, look, I have been through such horror. If I survived that, I could survive anything. Lori has tried to put her feelings into words through several victim impact statements.

Here's one she read for me a few months ago. All I can do today is to continue to embrace my daughter and offer her everything I have to help her face each new day as she continues to fight her way back, knowing she will live the rest of her life with the scars of this nightmare. The deepest scars are on her daughter's soul. Dela's grip

on all of her loved ones' lives will never really loosen. Lori often finds herself talking to strangers, telling them to be careful to always watch their backs. I guess we've suffered so much and our hearts have hurt so badly for so many years that if we can help someone to navigate, one person hears this,

And it helps them to understand and to deal with their pain and to make it better. If we can make to save one person some of the pain that we have endured, it's worth it. Thank you for listening and letting me share this important story with you. The victims of these two attacks are two of the most courageous women I have ever come across.

If you've been the victim of a sexual assault or know someone who has, please contact police or call 911. Next time on Crime Beat, a broken relationship separates a young father from his little girl. Then, after two years, they're reunited.

He was really excited, really happy, almost giddy. Things were finally starting to look up for Ryan Lane. Until he vanished. Gone without a trace. I didn't understand the depths of people's depravity. I really didn't get it. That's next time on Crime Beat. Crime Beat is written and produced by me, Nancy Hixt, with producer Dila Velasquez.

Our audio producer is Rob Johnston. Special thanks to Vildo Sturum, Mike Hills, and Brent Stanley for their editing assistance. I would love to have you tell a friend about this podcast, and you can help me share these important stories by rating and reviewing Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.

I want to thank you for all the questions you've been sending in. I've been trying to answer all of them. If you have questions about an episode, about crime reporting in general, or a question about me, send it my way. I'll do my best to get back to you. And I hope to answer some of your questions right here on the podcast in an upcoming episode.

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