Man who orchestrated and recorded Saskatoon riverbank sexual assault sentenced to 8.5 years
Warning: this story contains distressing details.
A man who orchestrated a sexual assault on the Saskatoon riverbank in 2021, leaving a teen girl close to death, is staying in prison.
Justice Natasha Crooks sentenced Mohammad Kouman to 8.5 years in a recent decision. With credit for time spent on remand, the 23-year-old still has four years left to serve.
A 17-year-old co-accused, who Kouman recorded sexually assaulting the 15-year-old victim, was sentenced to 30 months. He cannot be named because of his age.
Crooks said that Kouman was "callous" and showed "a complete disregard" for the young girl.
The judge described what happened in her decision.
Around midnight on June 7, 2021, the 15-year-old snuck out of her house. She shut off her phone so she couldn't be tracked by her parents. She got in a car with two males — Kouman and a teen — Crooks wrote.
"After picking up [the teen], the trio went to a late‑night liquor store to buy alcohol. Mr. Kouman went in and bought a 26‑ounce bottle of vodka and one litre of Pepsi. Mr. Kouman then drove to a spot by the Broadway Bridge, and the group sat on the benches near the river," she wrote.
The teens drank most of the vodka "but Mr. Kouman took little sips of vodka and drank the Pepsi instead."
Both men assaulted the teen and then left her partially clothed on the riverbank trail while they went for breakfast at Tim Hortons.
"Around 5:00 a.m., [the teen] was discovered lying on a walking path by the river near the Broadway Bridge. The passerby called 911. Paramedics and firefighters attended and placed her on a stretcher for ambulance transport to the Royal University Hospital [RUH] and she was admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit," Crooks wrote.
"The attending paramedics testified that when they located [the teen], she was unconscious. It was raining. She was cold, her clothing was soaked, and her sweater was pulled up over her head. Her eyes were not moving, she had no verbal response, and she showed little response to painful stimuli."
She was hospitalized in intensive care with seizures from a pre-existing medical condition and hypothermia. Her blood-alcohol level was a near-fatal level of .36.
Crooks ruled that Kouman's moral blameworthiness was high, given how he put her in a position where she was completely vulnerable "and then took advantage of this vulnerability."
"His conduct did enormous psychological damage to the victim."
Kouman will be on the national sex offender registry for 20 years. He must also abide by numerous conditions, including not working or volunteering with children, for five years after his release.
