A Winnipeg bus driver who was stabbed to death Tuesday morning was reportedly facing multiple charges relating to sexual assault, the Winnipeg Free Press reports.
Irvine Fraser, 58, stabbed multiple times by a passenger early Tuesday morning, was set to face trial in January 2018 for multiple counts of sexual assault and sexual interference with a child.
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According to the Free Press, Fraser ducked on a trial that was set in October 2016, and a warrant was put out for his arrest. In January, he turned himself in, and the date was rescheduled. Officials from Fraser’s union, ATU Local 105, told reporters that they were not at all aware of Fraser’s history, nor were they aware of the warrant for his arrest last year.
“We know nothing about it,” John Callahan, president of the union, told the Free Press. He also noted that employees are supposed to notify their superiors if they’re charged with a crime, which now raises questions of whether Transit—Fraser’s employer—knew about Fraser’s case but chose not to tell the union.
“Any time (an employee) is charged, they have to make it known to the employer and we have to represent them.”
Although Fraser denied the charges at his preliminary hearing, the woman involved in the case said she had been molested by him from 1983 to 1991—with the assaults beginning when she was five years old. Fraser was released on conditional bail, with a stipulation that he could not have any contact with the victim.
The man who killed Fraser—22-year-old Brian Kyle Thomas—has a lengthy criminal history of violence: previously being charged after assaulting his ex-girlfriend while under the influence of alcohol.
On the night Fraser was killed, police say Thomas was reportedly with a group of friends on the bus, but they left him behind. When Fraser got to the end of his route and tried to escort Thomas off the bus, Thomas asked Fraser where his friends were. Fraser then tried to physically grab him, which prompted Thomas to pull out a large knife, and began stabbing and slashing the driver.
Winnipeg Police told VICE Thursday that investigators are still trying to determine if the killing was at all motivated or connected to Fraser’s charges.
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