A former Edmonton man and high-risk sex offender who escaped Canada in 2013 has been found guilty of raping a 69-year-old woman in Seattle.
Michael Stanley, 49, triggered a manhunt across Saskatchewan and Alberta when he cut off his ankle bracelet in Lloydminster on the boundary of the two provinces and made a run for the U.S. border where he managed to cross unchallenged.
At the time, Canadian authorities alerted their U.S. counterparts about Stanley, but they determined he was a U.S. citizen and they had no reason to arrest him, so let him enter the country, while Canadian officials decided not to ask for his extradition.
Stanley has a long history of crime, including sexually assaulting disabled children and an 82-year-old woman in Lethbridge, Alta.
On Thursday, a jury in Seattle found him guilty of the attack on a woman in her home.
He now faces up to life in prison.
Stanley had a criminal record in Canada that dated back 25 years. Before he fled, he had most recently served 32 months for luring two mentally challenged boys into an apartment, lighting a crack pipe, blowing smoke in their faces and then sexually assaulting them.
Parole board documents also described the Lethbridge case, in which Stanley broke into an elderly woman's apartment while she was sleeping and sexually assaulted her.
Stanley ran into trouble soon after arriving in Seattle. He was arrested on misdemeanour charges of harassment and resisting arrest after he threatened someone who asked him to be quiet. He was sentenced to seven months in jail.
Stanley's criminal record in Canada dates back to 1987.
