VI.

In the years following Sharmini's death, Tippett continued to draw police attention.



In 2000, he was accused of stalking a cashier at a grocery store in Oshawa, Ont., where he had moved after leaving the Don Mills area. He wasn't charged, but was given a no trespass order for the supermarket and ordered to stay away from the woman.

A few years later, Tippett and his family were living in Collingwood, Ont., a ski town on the southern tip of Georgian Bay, about a two-hour drive north of Toronto. It was here that Tippett was convicted of harassing his female neighbour.

Court documents say that when the 25-year-old rebuffed his romantic gestures, he wouldn't give up. He would "park in front of her residence and would sit and stare." He also made false allegations to the Children's Aid Society about how she treated her young son.

He was given a suspended sentence in June 2005.

Tippett and his family then moved to Peterborough, Ont., where police say he was on their radar "right from the day he arrived," in part because he was on probation for the Collingwood stalking charge.

"We just had a feeling that he was going to be problems," recalled retired Peterborough police officer Dan Smith. "And sure enough, he was."

The first hint of trouble came when Tippett allegedly offered a 12-year-girl a fake job at the YMCA. When she told her mom, her mom called the police. No charges were laid.

A similar interaction played out a short while later, when Tippett approached a young woman at the local Walmart, where she was looking for a job.

"Once again, [it was] a new Canadian, vulnerable. And he says he can get her a job at the YMCA and somehow gets her address," said Smith. "He starts dropping stuff off at her house."

Records show Tippett showed up at the woman's home on at least three occasions, once leaving a birthday card signed "Jason."

'I don't see the similarities': Stanley Tippett speaks to CBC's Uncover about job applications.

He also told her that her duties at the YMCA would include work on behalf of the police.

When Tippett ran into the woman a few days later at Taco Bell, again looking for a job, he berated her, saying he had already promised her employment.

Court records indicate he even brought an application form with him to the fast-food restaurant.

Suspicious, the woman reached out to the Y directly and was told there were no openings and no employee named Jason. The next call was to police.

"And that's when the bells and whistles went off," said Smith. "Holy jeez, what's this guy doing?"

Police moved to arrest Tippett, searching his home and seizing his van. They found duct tape, rope, plastic sheets, plastic cable ties and a hammer and a knife under the driver's seat — "all sorts of stuff that could be your abduction kit 101," said Smith. In Tippett's home, a pellet pistol was found hidden in the basement.

Tippett pleaded guilty to criminal harassment and was sentenced to two years in prison.

The most serious charge against Tippett — one that keeps him jailed today — came in August 2008.

According to a court ruling, Tippett was driving home just after midnight on the morning of Aug. 6, when he came across two young girls stumbling drunk in the streets. Tippett offered them a ride in his van, dropping one of the girls off at a park. He then drove off with the other, who was 12.

The child was found naked from the waist down outside a school in Courtice, Ont., about an hour's drive away, by police answering the calls of concerned neighbours who had heard someone screaming "No!" and "Please!"

When police arrived, they saw a man walking toward a red van in the school's back parking lot. He ignored police commands to stop, jumping into the vehicle and driving away, mounting a curb to do so.

An officer gave chase, but it was eventually called off — it became too dangerous on the town's sleepy residential streets.

The officer did manage, however, to get the van's licence plate, as well as a look at the driver. He later identified that driver as Tippett, noting that the features of the man's head and face were very distinctive.

The van, which was found abandoned in Oshawa, was registered to Tippett.

Police found two used condoms inside the vehicle. And the victim's clothes were found near the scene at the school. While DNA was collected, there wasn't enough of it to match it to anybody but the victim.

Still, in December 2009, Tippett was convicted of seven counts related to the attack, including kidnapping, sexual assault and sexual interference.

Stanley Tippett gets into a car outside the Superior Court of Justice in Peterborough, Ont., on Dec. 23, 2009 after being handed a guilty verdict in the kidnap and sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl. (Peter Redman/The Canadian Press)

Stanley Tippett gets into a car outside the Superior Court of Justice in Peterborough, Ont., on Dec. 23, 2009 after being handed a guilty verdict in the kidnap and sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl. (Peter Redman/The Canadian Press)

To this day, Tippett, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, maintains his innocence, saying he, too, was the victim of a crime and was ultimately wrongly convicted.



In his telling of what happened that night, Tippett was giving the girl a ride home when he was carjacked by two men, who threw him out of the vehicle and took off.

Tippett says he landed in a ditch and had to climb out. He then walked a short distance so he could call his wife, who ordered him a cab, which he took to his uncle's place nearby in order to report the carjacking.

The DNA evidence proves he never attacked the 12-year-old, says Tippett, who agreed to an interview with Uncover because he said he wanted to clear his name in the 2008 sexual assault.

Evidence at Tippett's trial showed there were traces of semen on the girl's tank top from two different men, which supports his carjacking claim. Tippett alleges it was these men who sexually assaulted the girl.

But the samples found were very small — millions fewer sperm cells than you would normally see if there was recent sexual activity.

"They brushed it off as nothing but a laundry transfer," Tippett said.

Listen to Episode 3 of Uncover: Sharmini.

A forensic expert at Tippett's trial testified that a laundry transfer — where trace amounts of a substance can transfer from one item of clothing to another in the wash — was one plausible explanation for the two sets of sperm cells on the victim's tank top.

In his ruling, the judge who found Tippett guilty noted that the victim's clothing had only her DNA on it.

Tippett filed an appeal, but lost. The appellate judge conceded that while the trial judge erred by not mentioning the men's sperm cells in his initial ruling, the error was not significant.

In fact, he noted that the male DNA proved nothing. There wasn't enough of a sample to match it to anyone. It didn't point to someone else sexually assaulting the 12-year-old, nor did it convict Tippett. It was simply inconclusive.

The other evidence — including witness testimony — was enough to convict Tippett.

In denying the appeal, the appellate judge wrote that Tippett’s carjacking defence was "unbelievable."

Tippett was declared a dangerous offender in October 2011 and was handed an indeterminate sentence, meaning he could remain jailed for the rest of his life.

"He has showed a pattern of persistent, aggressive behaviour," Justice Bruce Glass said at the time, noting Tippett was obsessed with sex and would reoffend should he be released from prison.

Tippett was last denied parole in 2018.

But he continues to fight what he calls his wrongful conviction; he is asking for a review of the DNA analysis from Ontario's justice minister, who has the power to probe anything determined to be a miscarriage of justice.

"I think there are those that can be rehabilitated, you know," said Smith, the former Peterborough police officer. "But I believe wholeheartedly, 100 per cent, that that man can never, ever step foot in society again without putting people at risk.

"Never ever have I met a man like him — and I've dealt with a lot of serious offenders — never have I ever come across a person like Stanley Tippett."