Vancouver police have arrested Nicole Edwards, a woman charged with multiple sexual and weapons offences, for the fourth time.
On Monday morning, officers from the Vancouver Police Department found and arrested Edwards where she had been known to frequent often, Oppenheimer Park in the Downtown Eastside.
The Oppenheimer Park area is the same place where, in the summer of 2020, Edwards was allegedly involved in crimes which led to her being charged with 15 counts of offences relating to sexual assault, assault, and confinement. The assault victim was allegedly directed at gunpoint into a tent where she was held against her will, beaten, and sexually assaulted with a weapon for more than 15 hours, prior to her escape.
A series of releases from the VPD documents Edwards’ alleged breaches of release conditions starting in May last year. The alleged assault was not carried out by Edwards alone; a man named Jason Tapp was also charged and they were both arrested in connection with the assault.
Both Edwards and Tapp were released from custody with several court-imposed conditions and breached those conditions the same month.
In June, Vancouver police asked for the public’s help in locating the two suspects and they were both arrested a day later.
In July, a VPD release alleges Edwards did not return to her halfway house and in August the VPD again called upon the public to help in locating Edwards. Two days after the call was put out she was arrested again.
From September to December there are no reports from the VPD about Edwards or Tapp.
Then in January, it is alleged that Edwards didn’t report to her Surrey halfway house and a few weeks later yet another call was put to the public for information on her whereabouts in a Canada-wide warrant.
The latest addition to the timeline comes on Monday when Edwards was arrested for the fourth time in the Downtown Eastside.
Dan McLaughlin with the Communications Counsel for the BC Prosecution Service said the BCPS will have no comment on the course of proceedings in advance of Edwards’ next court appearance.
