Jared Charles. Photo courtesy Prince Albert Police.
Prosecution has upgraded one of the most serious charges against child abduction suspect Jared John Charles from sexual assault to aggravated sexual assault.
Charles, 19, was arrested last week in relation to Prince Albert’s Amber Alert, and appeared by video in court on Friday. At that time, the prosecutor announced that she was staying all charges stemming from the abduction in order to lay new charges.
The court docket reveals that all previous charges – including kidnapping, sexual interference, and invitation to sexual touching – remain in place aside from the upgraded sex assault charge and the addition of a charge for break and enter while committing an offence.
The charges all relate to the July 4 Amber Alert in which an eight-year-old girl was taken from an east-end Prince Albert park and schoolyard. After an intensive search by police and the community, the girl was found abandoned and walking towards an acreage home just outside Prince Albert nearly five hours later. The victim’s identity is protected by a publication ban.
In court, it was also revealed that Charles faces a charge of failing to report to his La Ronge probation officer back in mid-May. Charles has previously triggered an Amber Alert after he took two boys from the La Ronge area to his grandmother’s home in St. Louis on Sept. 28, 2016. The boys were found safe, and police said Charles had been on an undertaking not to have contact with children under the age of 16 at the time.
The abduction charges against Charles were later dropped, but he was found guilty of breaching the conditions of an undertaking and did not serve further prison time.
He remains in custody, with his lawyer saying they may set a bail hearing later this month.